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Price after tying career high: 'I don't care about' Ks

Butch Dill / Getty Images Sport / Getty

David Price looked more like the ace baseball is accustomed to on Tuesday when he dominated the Atlanta Braves over eight innings on this way to tying a career-high in strikeouts with 14.

But the 30-year-old left-hander, who's gotten off to a rough start to his Boston tenure, apparently doesn't care about his strikeout totals.

"I don't care about strikeouts, man," Price told reporters postgame. "That doesn't mean anything to me. I want to go out there and pitch as deep as I can into baseball games. I want to get 27 outs every five days. Twenty-four is good."

Although Price owns a perfect record this season, his ERA coming into Tuesday was a concerning 7.04. The strapping lefty was glad to get the pony off his back against the Braves and felt relieved by his performance.

"I needed it," Price said. "To go out there and to throw the baseball the way I'm capable of throwing it, everybody needs that."

The start was so impressive that manager John Farrell had nothing but compliments for his ace in postgame comments.

"That's as crisp and as sharp as we've seen David this year," Farrell explained. "He was powerful. He had a full assortment of pitches, and when he's had that two-seam fastball running back to catch the inside corner against some right-handers, his delivery is locked in. We staked him to an early lead, and he was outstanding tonight."

Price, who was signed to a seven-year, $217-million contract in the offseason in the hopes of anchoring the Red Sox rotation, lowered his ERA to 5.76, while raising his strikeout rate to 13.3 per nine innings.

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