Why Garrett Crochet deemed his debut start with Red Sox a ‘grinder day’
"I’m going to walk away from today priding myself on the fact I was able to be a lot more efficient there later in the outing.”
Expectations were high for Garrett Crochet entering his anticipated Opening Day start (and team debut) with the Red Sox on Thursday.
The 25-year-old lefty already arrived in Fort Myers this winter as the team’s ace after making life miserable for opposing batters last season with the White Sox (3.58 ERA, 209 strikeouts in 146 innings).
But Crochet’s stock continued to soar during Grapefruit League play — with the southpaw posting a 0.57 ERA across 15.2 innings of work in spring training while leading all big-league pitchers with 30 strikeouts over that stretch.
That sterling play on the mound did not exactly carry over into Thursday afternoon against the Rangers. But even with Crochet struggling with his command in the early going, Boston’s new No. 1 starter still did enough to keep his team in the fight en route to an eventual 5-2 win over Texas.
“It was a grinder day from the start,” Crochet said. “I felt like I struggled with consistent execution, maybe took a few too many shots in the first couple innings trying to get swing and miss.
“I dug myself into a hole with pitch count early. Later on in the game, I started trusting the defense and trusting everybody other than myself. I just tried filling up the zone as best as I could.”
Crochet logged five innings in his debut with Boston, surrendering five hits and two earned runs with two walks and four strikeouts.
While the Red Sox did not have any restrictions on Crochet’s workload on Thursday, Alex Cora ultimately opted to pull him after he had already reached 88 pitches (61 strikes).
A majority of those offerings came in the first two innings of work, with Crochet delivering 47 pitches in order to get those first six outs.
Even though Texas pushed across two runs against Crochet in the second and fourth innings, Cora acknowledged that he was pleased with Crochet’s start — even if he didn’t dial up the triple-digit velocity that he showcased in spring training.
“He was good,” Cora noted, per MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. “A lot of cutters. Velo was OK. I think he found his fastball halfway through the outing. Of course, he wanted to keep going. We’re in the business of taking care of him. We have to do that. He did a good job.”
Thursday’s start was a bit of an outlier for Crochet in terms of his command, as he only issued 33 walks across those 146 innings last season.
But even if Crochet’s debut wasn’t his sharpest performance, he acknowledged that there was plenty of positives from which to build.
“Last year, I feel like I didn’t walk guys so I’ve been putting a little excess pressure on myself to not walk guys,” Crochet said. “Realistically, that’s part of the game. … The first two innings really taxed my pitch count so I’m going to walk away from today priding myself on the fact I was able to be a lot more efficient there later in the outing.”
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