HOUSTON – Red Sox lefty David Price had been feeling ill for several days, but he told manager Alex Cora he was good enough to pitch on Saturday night against the Astros.

But Cora was on high alert from catcher Sandy Leon and pitching coach Dana LeVangie after Price’s less-than-impressive warmup pitches in the bullpen.

And when Cora’s fears were confirmed by 15 underwhelming pitches by Price to start the game, Cora took no chances and pulled his veteran starter in what wound up being a 4-3 loss to the Astros.

Price retired two batters and then left after giving up a single to Michael Brantley.

It was a tough decision for Cora to even permit the lefty to make his scheduled start against the Astros, but he decided to give it a shot.

“It wasn’t a normal week for him,” said Cora. “Before the game, I talked to him and said we don’t need heroes here. He’s like, ‘I’m good,’ but when he came out after he warmed up, Sandy talked to me a little bit, Dana talked to me a little bit. I saw him and talked to him.

“As soon as he went out there and threw the first pitch my mind starts spinning, and I’m like, ‘No we don’t need this, this guy is too valuable for us. There’s no energy.’ He was trying to compete with that and I appreciate that, like I told him, but there’s a bigger picture here and we need him to be right.”

Still, Price would have preferred the chance to try to battle through the illness.

“When AC came out there, I didn’t want to come out of the game,” said Price. “But he made the decision, so that’s part of it. I could’ve just ducked the start from the get-go. I didn’t want to do that, didn’t want to put us in that position. Went out there and tried to take the ball. AC didn’t like what he saw, so he took me out of the game. I wanted to stay in the game but he came out there. That’s that."

What was bothering Price?

“My back, back of my legs, my neck, just achiness all over. Nothing really feels good right now,” said Price. “I’m sure everybody here has experienced that. Think about trying to go out and make pitches.”

Price’s regular turn in the rotation would be on Thursday, when the Red Sox open a four-game series at Yankee Stadium.

It remains to be seen if Cora might juggle the rotation given Price’s light workload on Saturday.

“Yeah, sickness usually lasts four to six days, so I’ll be fine,” said Price.