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Boston Red Sox left-hander David Price was not an especially good pitcher Wednesday in a 4-0 loss to his old employer, the Tampa Bay Rays. Just ask him.

"Changeup, that's probably the worst changeup I've had in probably a month," Price said after the game, per John Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald. "Curveball was awful. Can't get my cutter or my slider where I want to. I'm just bad right now."

That's about as candid an assessment as you'll hear from any player. In a way, Price was a bit too hard on himself.

He lasted 6.1 innings Wednesday, after all, and struck out 10 next to one walk. But he did surrender nine hits and four earned runs. His ERA for the season rose to 4.74, and his record fell to 8-5.

Those are serviceable numbers for a fourth or fifth starter. For a guy who inked a seven-year, $217 million contract over the winter, it's an unmitigated disappointment.

Really, Price's 2016 is all about contradictions.

He paces the American League with 120 strikeouts and is third with 108.1 innings pitched. And after watching his ERA balloon to 6.75 on May 7, he pitched into the seventh inning or deeper in his next eight starts and shaved more than two points off his ERA in the process.

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Then came a 12-hit, six-run, 2.1 inning disaster against the Texas Rangers on June 24, followed by Wednesday's loss. Suddenly, the questions are back like the unkillable villain in a slasher flick.

Here's the biggest one: How worried should Red Sox fans be about their mercurial ace?

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The first place we look in these instances is velocity. And, indeed, Price's average fastball is down from a career mark of 94.2 mph to 92.3 mph, and opponents are making more hard contact against him than at any point in his career.

On Wednesday, though, his heater reached as high as 97. Instead, as Price indicated in his self-flagellating postgame remarks, the issue seems to be location and off-speed pitch execution.

That could suggest a mechanical issue, though Price dismissed that after his June 24 shellacking.

"I'm fine. You know, I'm fine," Price said at the time, per ESPN.com's Scott Lauber. "I just didn't execute pitches. It's not mechanics. It's not pitch selection. It's executing pitches. That's all it is."

If Price is telling the truth, and if there's no mystery injury lurking, maybe the problem is simply between his ears. Perhaps the pressure of living up to that gargantuan deal is getting to him.

That brand of dime-store psychoanalysis is often a cop-out. All players deal with pressure, and Price has been a premier pitcher for years.

This roller-coaster season, however, has gone on long enough to give the Beantown faithful vertigo. We know Price can still dominate like the man who won American League Cy Young Award honors in 2012. We also know he can be a gas can.

That's troubling for a club with postseason aspirations that's expecting Price to anchor its staff.

If the season ended today, Boston would host the AL Wild Card Game. At this point, you can make a convincing case that knuckleballer Steven Wright, who leads Red Sox starters with a 2.18 ERA, would be a safer choice to start that win-or-go-home contest.

Wright is making a shade over $500,000 this season; Price is pulling down $30 million.

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Price turns 31 in August, so there's no reason to assume the decline has arrived. But even if he shines the next time he takes the hill, or the next two times, the doubts will linger.

Price doesn't deserve all the blame for the Red Sox's 10-16 June, which dropped them out of first place and 5.5 games back of the Baltimore Orioles in the AL East. The rest of the rotation has scuffled, and the formerly world-beating offense has wobbled at times, including in Wednesday's shutout loss.

The Ringer's Bill Simmons, the unofficial spokesman for Red Sox nation, voiced his unqualified support for Price, which counts for something:

Still, this up-and-down act can only go on for so long. When you're making roughly a million dollars a start, the expectations of sustained excellence will never go away.

If that's gnawing at Price and impacting his performance, he's got to find a solution, whether it's extra bullpen sessions, studying tape or an appointment with a psychic healer.

Price's honesty after Wednesday's dud was admirable. Now, it's time for his results to consistently follow suit—or Boston's very valid worries could curdle into a full-blown panic.

All statistics current as of June 29 and courtesy of MLB.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.