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What Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet said after a disastrous outing vs. Cleveland
“I wish that they could have picked me up after giving up like one run."
The Red Sox left the field at Fenway Park with a 11-7 win over the Guardians, while ace Garrett Crochet currently sits atop the big leagues in both innings pitched (178.1) and strikeouts (218).
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But, the southpaw didn’t want to entertain any comments about his individual accomplishments on Tuesday — not on a night where the Red Sox’s top pitcher was uncharacteristically mortal on the mound.
“I did that tonight, so that’s cool,” Crochet said of taking the lead in strikeouts. “But I also kind of sucked tonight. So that blows. Just gotta not let my mind focus on that sort of thing.”
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Crochet was largely as advertised through the first five innings of Boston’s matchup against Cleveland — allowing just two hits and one run (a solo shot from Jhonkensy Noel) while only throwing 56 pitches.
The sixth inning was a different story.
Over a frame that saw Crochet throw 26 pitches, three of those offerings were swatted into the Fenway Park seats by Cleveland — with the lefty tagged for six runs off of six hits and those three homers in the inning.
Tuesday tied a career high for Crochet when it came to total homers allowed in a start (four), runs allowed (seven), and hits allowed (nine). Alex Cora ultimately ended his night after just six innings and 82 pitches.
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Crochet, who has been in a neck-and-neck battle with Detroit’s Tarik Skubal for the AL Cy Young Award this summer, saw his ERA balloon from 2.40 to 2.67 on the night.
Despite his struggles on the mound, Crochet felt as though it was more missed location and Cleveland putting some good swings on his pitches — rather than a sign of decreased velocity or other shortcomings that would raise more alarms about his game.
“Felt like it was going really good until it wasn’t,” Crochet said postgame. “Couple bad pitches. But it is what it is. Gotta move on. This interview looked a lot different 45 minutes ago, but that was a huge win.”
Crochet is sailing into uncharted waters when it comes to his usage and workload as Boston braces for a playoff run in October.
Crochet’s 178.1 innings of work is already well above his previous career high of 146 innings pitched during the 2024 season with the White Sox. Those reps aren’t expected to decrease moving forward — not with the Red Sox entrusting Crochet to get the team across the finish line and back into postseason play.
But, even with his unsightly pitching line on Tuesday, Crochet doesn’t feel concerned about his health as he looks to move on from this setback.
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“I feel really good. Velocity, not that tells the whole story, but it tells a lot of it. And it’s in a really good spot,” Crochet said. “Even my teammates are asking, like, ‘Hey, how are you feeling?’ But no, I truly do feel really good, taking care of my body in between starts and just doing everything I can to be prepared to help this team out down the stretch.”
As tough as Crochet’s showing was in the sixth inning, the 26-year-old pitcher said that the Red Sox’ ability to rally back from his outing and secure a win helped assuage his frustrations at Fenway.
“I wish that they could have picked me up after giving up like one run,” Crochet said of Boston’s bats. “But no. It is what it is. I think that just goes to show what this offense is capable of and we’re really never out of any game.”
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