BOSTON — Run support has been in short supply for Boston Red Sox pitcher David Price.
He didn’t need many runs Sunday to snap his personal three-game losing streak.
Price held the Seattle Mariners to one run in eight innings and Mookie Betts provided him with the decisive blast by hitting a go-ahead home run in a 2-1 Boston win at Fenway Park.
The Red Sox (39-29) had scored eight runs in Price’s prior three starts. They left 11 men on base and didn’t provide much room for error but Price (8-4) didn’t need a lot. He struck out seven batters and walked no one, his second straight walk-less outing.
Price has given the Sox eight straight quality starts and lowered his ERA from 6.75 to 4.24 during that span. Only a fourth-inning home run by Seattle outfielder Franklin Gutierrez, stood between Price and a shutout.
“I’m getting better, absolutely,” Price said. “But there’s always room for improvement no matter how good you are. So I’m still not satisfied.”
Boston hadn’t won a one-run game since May 15.
“As the game went on it looked like (Price) got more powerful in both stuff and command,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said.
While the Red Sox’s starter was thriving, Seattle starter Taijuan Walker, who left his prior start June 14 in the fourth inning with a strained tendon in his right foot, was battling through injury.
He shut out Boston over five innings, allowing six hits and one walk, and striking out three, but he came out of the game after throwing 88 pitches.
“Yeah, (I felt it) after the first at-bat, didn’t really get any better,” Walker said. “It happened in the first inning and just kept getting worse.”
Betts, who was 3-for-5, hit an Edwin Diaz fastball into the Monster Seats leading off in the seventh to put Boston ahead 2-1.
“Just trying to start something there. Trying to get one on the board and I was able to do that,” Betts said.
The Red Sox had tied it 1-1 in the sixth inning after Vidal Nuno relieved Walker. Xander Bogaerts and David Ortiz greeted Nuno with consecutive singles to set up first and third with no one out, and Hanley Ramirez’s fielder’s choice grounder plated Bogaerts with the tying run.
Sox place OF Castillo on waivers
The Boston Red Sox placed high-priced outfielder Rusney Castillo on outright waivers, MLB.com reported Sunday.
Castillo, 28, was optioned to Triple-A Pawtucket on Thursday and waived Saturday. Teams have until Monday to claim Castillo. If he is not claimed, he will be taken off Boston’s 40-man roster and outrighted to the minor leagues.
It is unlikely another team will place a claim on Castillo because he signed a seven-year, $72.5 million contract in 2014 after defecting from Cuba. He is due $10.5 million this year and could make up to $46 million if his player option is exercised following the 2018 through the 2020 seasons.
Since being signed by the Red Sox in 2014, Castillo is hitting .262 with seven home runs and 36 RBIs over 99 games. He failed to make the Red Sox’s Opening Day roster this season and has played in just nine games this year. He is hitting .245 in 147 at-bats at Pawtucket.