Garrett Crochet (15-5, 2.57 ERA) was back to being Garrett Crochet on Monday night in Sacramento, striking out 10 as the Red Sox dominated the Athletics 7-0 in game one of their three-game series at Sutter Health Park.
Outside of his outing at Yankee Stadium on August 23, Crochet himself admitted postgame Monday that he hasn’t been himself his last five starts, with his most recent start against Cleveland as the exclamation mark for concern from fans across Red Sox Nation.
He credits his battery mates for a dominant bounce back performance.
“I felt like the last five, outside of New York, I was kind of scuffling,” said Crochet. “Big credit to [Connor] Wong. A couple days ago I was talking to him, kind of searching. Just hadn't been locating the four-seam glove side. And you know, he kind of got me on practicing the front hip glove side sinker, just to make sure that I'm fully getting extended on the pitch.
“It got my four-seam back dialed in, and it even allowed the front door two-seam to become a weapon. And big credit to [Carlos Narvaez], didn't shake a single time tonight. He called a great game.”
With a lineup full of inexperienced hitters, Crochet feasted, featuring his entire arsenal all the way through his full seven innings of work.
At 101 pitches on the night, Crochet was right around the mark he’s been at all season long, typically landing between 100 and 103 pitches on nights where the Cy Young candidate throws into the seventh or eighth inning.
With Crochet now well-past his career high of 146 innings pitched set last year in Chicago, both fans and media alike have wondered if the recent struggles for Crochet were related to fatigue from reaching a workload he had never been asked to take on before, as he leads all of baseball with 185.1 innings pitched.
When asked postgame on Monday if there were plans to limit Crochet’s pitch count in advance of a potential playoff run, manager Alex Cora was dismissive.
“Do you see down the stretch maybe finding ways to deload [Crochet] in certain spots?” MassLive’s Chris Cotillo asked Cora.
“Not really,” said Cora. “You know, we did that halfway through the season, and he’s in a good spot physically.”
His 228 strikeouts on the season are tops in all of baseball, six ahead of Tigers ace Tarik Skubal (13-4, 2.10 ERA). His 15 wins are good for fourth, and his 2.57 ERA is good for fifth. Iif you’re into WHIP, his 1.05 is good for 12th. And if you’re into batting average against, his .221 is good for 17th.
By every measure, Crochet is having an all-time season for Boston.
“Because he's been so good all year, [is] too much made of when Garrett has blips here and there?” Cotillo asked Cora.
“Skubal gave up a grand slam here,” said Cora. “So that's part of baseball, man. They’re not perfect, you know? They’re gonna give it up, that’s how it works. You know, when you start 30 games at this level, somebody's gonna get you.”
Cora’s clearly not concerned with his horse, and intends to ride him all the way through the end of this 2025 journey.
Let’s hope the organization is strategic about when they’re stopping for water along the trail.
Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.