NEW YORK -- Boston Red Sox left-hander David Price has been scratched from his Wednesday night start against the New York Yankees, manager Alex Cora said Tuesday.
Price is undergoing tests Tuesday in Boston after a recurrence of a hand issue. He was removed for precautionary reasons after just one inning of work against the Yankees on April 11 due to numbness in his throwing hand, including the loss of feeling in his fingertips. Cora said the problem resurfaced during a bullpen session Sunday. Cora said more would be known after the game Tuesday or before the game Wednesday.
"I talked to him on Sunday," Cora said, "and I told him, I said, 'Man, your health is more important than just a start or two starts right now. Let's make sure you know what's going on.' Hey, maybe there's nothing and he'll come back, throw a bullpen and he'll pitch over the weekend or whenever he pitches, but we have to make sure we know what's going on."
Price will be replaced in Game 2 of the series with the Yankees by scheduled Game 3 starter Rick Porcello. Eduardo Rodriguez will start Game 3 on Thursday.
When Price first experienced the numbness -- which at the time the team thought might be due to the 42-degree weather at first pitch in Fenway Park -- he described the extent of it to reporters and said it was unrelated to the elbow injury that limited him to just 16 appearances in 2017.
"My whole hand," Price said. "Didn't have any feeling in my fingertips. It was something I've felt before, but it didn't go away."
Price, who started the season with a string of 14 straight scoreless innings, allowed four runs before exiting that eventual 10-7 loss to the Yankees, throwing just 35 pitches -- the shortest start of his 11-year career. Since then, Price has made four more starts, going 1-3 and serving up 20 runs (17 earned) in 22 innings.
"Everybody thought, everybody agreed, that it was just something that happened that night," Cora said. "We actually felt ... it was just a one-day thing. Obviously with the weather, we talked about it, and we felt it wasn't going to happen again."