Another W with No. 24 on the hill ... Is this the new David Price?

BOSTON — When one looks at the body of work that David Price has put in so far this season, one really has to tip their cap toward No. 24.

I'm serious: Price is 13-6 so far with 142 strikeouts in 2018, and while he’s deflecting the thought of additional pressure given Chris Sale’s return to the disabled list Saturday — "I’m making $32 million. It don’t matter. It don’t change what I’m doing; I’ve got enough pressure on me,” he said in the locker room afterward — you have to think that the Red Sox’ No. 2 in the starting rotation is quietly looking forward to this stretch run. With his performances over the last six starts, including a perfect 3-0 since the All-Star break, it feels like he wants to silence the doubters of the last two-and-a-half seasons. He wants to truly earn his salary and get the ring that has evaded him throughout his career.

On Saturday night, he took another step toward that goal, gutting out a big W on the Fenway mound as the Red Sox won his seventh-straight start and improved to 15-2 in his past 17.

Some of the numbers against the Rays might not be too impressive: Price went to five three-ball counts, a couple of times consecutively to put himself in a bit of a bind against a weak-hitting Rays team; and granted, he wasn’t exactly too efficient, with three 20-pitch frames.

But when he needed that out pitch — boy, he gave it.

The other numbers he had against the Rays were impressive. Price blew eight hitters away, seven of which he caught looking. He also scattered five hits in his seven innings, walking two.

“I threw my fastball well, I made some good pitches on the outside part of the plate, my backdoor cutter, and when we really needed that fastball into right-handed hitters, we executed. That was good to see. They were all strikes, that’s good when you’re getting hitters to take pitches in the strike zone,” Price said in self-assessment.

And in the first inning, he got out of a little jam thanks to the pitch-calling of catcher Sandy Leon, who called a solid game for the southpaw.

“He did a great job,” Leon said. “All of his pitches, getting ahead in the count, working the corners. He did a really good job.

“Today, he was painting the corners on both sides. Outside, inside, he threw that pitch and there was nothing they could do.”

With runners on first and third and one out, Price punched out Tommy Pham (two of Price’s eight strikeouts) with a healthy inside fastball, before he went full to C.J. Cron. Cron, who would later belt Price’s only mistake to the parking lot across Lansdowne, would ground weakly back to Price to strand the runners, and to send the Red Sox into the bottom half of the first breathing a sigh of relief.

Of course, Boston capitalized on the fact Tampa starter Tyler Glasnow had difficulty locating (three-straight walks; did someone forget where the zone was?), and managed to pop him for a massive crooked number.

“It’s always a boost,” said Price, wearing a Vanderbilt pullover as he addressed the media. “To put up a zero in the first and have your offense put up four in that bottom half, it makes things a lot easier out there for the pitcher. It puts defenders at ease and to go out there in that second inning … it makes everything easier.”

Price would end up cruising through the next three hitters, pitching with a lead Boston wouldn’t relinquish. But with two outs and two runners on in the fifth (a hit and a hit batsman), he managed to shake the errant plunking aside and got Matt Duffy to fly out to Jackie Bradley Jr. in center to retire the side.

Nah, I don’t think the pressure — something that may be all in his head — phased him one bit Saturday.

Price admitted to making adjustments over his last few starts, even though he was pretty obstinate when asked what those were — “I made adjustments; I’m not going to tell you. You can go back and watch film. I’m not going to do your job for you, you don’t do mine.” — and it looks like whatever it was has turned him into the pitcher he wanted to be when the Red Sox signed him after the 2015 season.

“I’m getting back to myself. I’ve changed a lot of stuff up from the first two and a half years,” he said. “It’s about time.”

Leon wasn’t telling us what those adjustments were, either.

“I just call the game, you know,” he said. “Like I said, the last five or six starts, he’s been really good with all four pitches. In the big leagues, you have to get ahead of hitters.”

And he did that: of the 29 hitters he faced Saturday, 10 saw first-pitch balls. That means 18 were first-pitch strikes or contact. And sure, he would end up going to the aforementioned three-ball counts.

Two of them were K’s. One was a fly out to Andrew Benintendi in left, leading to a double play — which erased another three-ball victim, Pham.

All in all, not a bad piece of pitching for someone who likes to rile Red Sox fans up.

Again… Price is 13-6. He hasn’t pitched bad — and given the circumstances, Boston needs him to be consistent for the rest of this season.

He has a few more starts to go.