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Matt... I think we are closer to agreement than you think... just coming at the center from different directions.
My belief is Price was extremely relaxed to start with, because he was confident in his pitching plan and his own ability to perform. Price felt absolutely no pressure from this offense. He knew he could get them to chase his curve, or he could just blow his fastball by them . Thus, Price hit his spots in several critical times.
I think you believe Price was un-hittable basically, because he is really good and he was ON, and he got better as his confidence grew / game went on.
So same result, just in different order. However, I believe that if some how a few Mariners could have cracked that confidence, then the hittable Price shows up due to him feeling the pressure.
That is basically what I saw again today - Odorizzi had no fear. Go right at the Mariners with a plan of attack, and force the Mariners to think versus just let them wail away at known pitch sequences. Now, maybe this is due to Molina, but that is another subject.
Now another reason for this opposing pitcher confidence is probably due to the Mariners have a bunch of guys who are guessing at the plate. From Almonte to Miller, even Zunino to Seager - these guys are swinging as hard as they can when they think a fastball is coming... and they are guessing wrong a lot. Then they get to two strikes, and some cut down their swing some times, but others (Miller, Almonte, Saunders, Seager and others) stay with their aggressiveness. However, if you are not guessing fastball, and a fastball comes... strike out looking.
Now maybe some will call this pitch stalking, but if you are striking out a lot more than you are getting hits... it is ugly, no matter what you call it... and the Mariner's offense the past few days has been ugly.