Red Sox Pitcher’s ‘Emotions’ High After Rough Outing

Hours after Red Sox manager Alex Cora confirmed Quinn Priester would be competing for a spot in the rotation, the 24-year-old righty was left “frustrated” by his latest outing on the mound in Fort Myers.

Priester allowed three earned runs with three walks and four strikeouts across 2 2/3 innings of work, in Boston’s 7-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves at JetBlue Park.

“Frustrated,” Priester told reporters, per MassLive’s Christopher Smith. “Need to be better. There’s no better way to say that. I think the breaking balls saved me from giving up more. But ultimately, I need to be better with the fastballs and I think a lot of those runs come off the board. I think (if) we execute fastballs, we throw them better, those balls down the line turn into foul balls and then we keep them honest with some stuff.

“It just needs to get better and we will,” Priester added, per Smith. “We still got some starts left and we’re going to keep putting one foot in front of the other and ultimately get ready to compete.”

The 18th overall pick in the 2019 draft has started four games for the Red Sox this spring and has a record of 1-1. Priester has a 4.82 ERA across 9 1/3 innings pitched, surrendering two home runs on 14 hits, with nine strikeouts and seven walks.

“I think right now, emotions are high, frustration’s high,” Priester said. “So, I can think a million different things about what went wrong or what could have been wrong. … But, that’s going to happen in every start.”

Priester continued: “I think for me, right now, it’s let this emotion fuel this next work week. But, ultimately, once it calms down, get a more realistic feel for exactly what happened. And then, like I said, get back after it tomorrow and start getting ready for the next one.”