Price 'excited' after tossing 4 scoreless innings in spring debut

While it was mainly against minor-league talent, David Price's first spring training start of the season gave the Boston Red Sox left-hander plenty of reason to be optimistic.

Price tossed four shutout innings against the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday, allowing just one hit and a walk while striking out five on 55 pitches. The Blue Jays had only a handful of players in the lineup that will crack their Opening Day roster, with Aledmys Diaz, Kevin Pillar, and Steve Pearce combining to go 0-for-6 with two strikeouts against the former Cy Young winner.

"It feels good," Price told reporters, according to Jen McCaffrey of MassLive.com. "This is March 15 and I've never been able to have a four-pitch mix on March 15. I've never been this far along in spring training even though I've only thrown in one game. I'm excited about that."

The Red Sox have brought Price along slowly this spring, partly because the club is trying to limit the early workload for all of Boston's starters - but in Price's case, it's also due to the fact he missed significant time with an elbow injury last season.

While manager Alex Cora has yet to name an Opening Day starter, Price's current schedule would line him up to pitch the second game of the season.