LOS ANGELES — The Boston Red Sox will start David Price, not Chris Sale, when they look to close out the World Series in Game 5 on Sunday.
Manager Alex Cora announced the surprise decision toward the end of his news conference following Boston’s 9-6 Game 4 win on Saturday.
Sale was expected to get the nod but Price will instead start on one days’ less rest. He started Game 2 at Fenway Park and picked up the win Wednesday.
Sale helped the Red Sox in other ways Saturday — mainly by motivating them through words.
The Red Sox had just fallen behind the Dodgers by four runs in the sixth inning, nine outs from finding themselves tied 2-2 in a World Series that seemed to be a runaway just 28 hours earlier.
His words were loud, not polite.
These were not the reassuring words delivered by David Ortiz in his dugout huddle in St. Louis after the fifth inning of Game 4 five years ago.
This was more like Justin Verlander‘s motivational message to the Houston Astros when he popped up the stairs in the very same dugout during Game 2 last October.
Boston rallied on Mitch Moreland‘s three-run homer off Ryan Madson in the seventh and Steve Pearce‘s solo shot against Kenley Jansen in the eighth. Rafael Dever’s go-ahead single in the ninth was followed by Pearce’s three-run double and Xander Bogaert’s RBI single built a five-run lead. With a 9-6 victory, the Red Sox took a 3-1 Series lead and kept rolling toward their fourth title in 15 seasons.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.