David Price On Postseason Struggles: 'I'm Not Mentally Weak'

By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) -- The question about David Price when he joined the Red Sox was whether or not he'd be able to perform in the postseason. He only got one chance to try to answer it. He failed.

Price was touched for five runs -- all earned -- over 3.1 innings in his lone postseason start last October in Cleveland. He gave up six hits, including a home run, and walked two batters, leaving him with an 0-8 record as a starting pitcher in the postseason.

With that experience now behind him, Price was asked by the Boston Herald's Steve Buckley down in Fort Myers if he spent time in the offseason sharpening his mental edge in order to improve his postseason performance.

Price said no. He didn't need to.

"It's nothing that I addressed. I'm not mentally weak," Price told Buckley. "That's not a place where I struggle. That's something I've always done a really good job at, the mental side of baseball. No, that's not something I addressed in the offseason."

Well then.

Price's answer was specifically addressing whether or not he spent time talking to sports psychologists about his postseason struggles. Price said he does talk to "those guys," but the specific topic of postseason performance was not at the forefront of this offseason's conversations.

But, well, it's just ... if Price wasn't talking to sports psychologists about his issues, he was certainly talking to everybody else about them. Here's a sampling of some of Price's tweets in the offseason:

Basically, Price felt like he couldn't make any comments about any topics without degrading himself and his playoff record. While yes, this was an obvious attempt to prevent the ever-present online trolling community from stating the obvious, it still indicated that the postseason flops remained at the forefront of Price's mind -- even when he landed in Hawaii for a vacation.

As Buckley noted, Price this week stressed that he needs to earn a postseason victory "as a starter." Last year, shortly after taking his playoff loss, Price clumsily made the distinction that he did have two postseason wins as a reliever. It didn't land too well with those who heard it. So even though it's still February, Price is apparently refocusing his attention toward getting some much-needed W's this coming October.

• Major League Baseball
• Boston Red Sox