ATLANTA — When he sent ace Garrett Crochet back out for a seventh inning at 99 pitches Sunday, Alex Cora looked across the Truist Park field. In his sightline was a former Red Sox ace who was in disbelief that the Red Sox were pushing their No. 1 starter as hard as they were.
“Chris (Sale) was looking at me on the other side,” Said Cora. “He was like, ‘Woah, that’s a new one.’ And we needed that.”
Crochet experienced a mix of dominance (a season-high 12 strikeouts), frustration (on a Marcell Ozuna and a few softly-hit singles) and adversity (he got out of a few tough jams) in the first six innings of his outing against the Braves, then pure jubilation in the seventh when he struck out Michael Harris II, Nick Allen and then star Ronald Acuña Jr. on just 13 pitches. Crochet, in the days after being traded to Boston, promised that he wouldn’t have a “collar” — let alone a leash — when it came to workload in 2025. With the Red Sox needing to end their road trip with a win, Cora let him loose.
“He told me, ‘Let’s keep going,’” Crochet said. “I was fired up. I was just hoping it wasn’t for Harris only. If you’re going to send me back out, let me go to work, and he did.”
Cora and pitching coach Andrew Bailey approached the seventh carefully. With righty Greg Weissert warm in the bullpen, the Sox planned to go hitter-by-hitter with Crochet, starting with the left-handed Harris. Any sort of baserunner would likely end the starter’s day. But he got Harris on three pitches and punched out Allen on four before winning the showdown against Acuña with his 112th and final pitch of the day and celebrating with a double fist pump on the mound. It was the most pitches he has ever thrown in a major league game. His 12 strikeouts marked a season-high.
“A hundred pitches is this big thing because 100 is a big number, but I was feeling really good, still, even at that pitch count,” said Crochet. “It was nice to have the communication we had and for me to go get the job done.
“It felt pretty cool to do it and then punch the side there in the seventh.”
The Red Sox largely took a training-wheels-off approach with their $170 million lefty throughout April and mid-May, allowing him to pitch deep into games and watching him eclipse 100 pitches in five of his first 10 outings. Then came the controversial outing May 21 against the Mets when Cora lifted Crochet at 85 pitches with one out in the fifth inning as part of a scheduled “de-load” day meant to monitor his pitch count. At the time, Crochet said he understood. After Sunday, Cora pointed back to that outing as key.
“He has been doing this the whole season,” Cora said. “These are the outings that when you look back at the Mets one, we’ve got to pick and choose. At that point, it looked like, ‘What are they doing?’ But there’s a reason, for us to be aggressive understanding now we’ve got Thursdays off and he’s gonna get an extra day, we can be more aggressive. We pushed him to the limit and he did an outstanding job.”
Crochet carved up the Braves lineup all afternoon, though he didn’t avoid trouble. With a two-run lead, he worked around back-to-back hits (double and single) to lead off the fourth, punching out Harris to end that threat. An inning later, Atlanta had two men on after Crochet’s second walk of Allen, the No. 9 hitter, and an Ozuna single. But Crochet won the left-on-left matchup against Matt Olson with a ground ball to second.
“I view myself as someone able to get out of that situation,” Crochet said. “Not in an arrogant way, but I was like, ‘Ok, gotta get the next three.’ And then I did.”
At times when the lefty couldn’t let the Braves put the ball in play, he didn’t. Using his cutter to his advantage, Crochet got 23 swings-and-misses and achieved a strikeout count that was one shy of his career-high of 13.
“You feel it when you’re out there on the mound,” Crochet said. “It’s not like I’m trying to achieve a certain number or anything like that but you definitely feel it.”
The scuffling Red Sox’ offense didn’t do much against Bryce Elder or Atlanta’s bullpen after the first inning, but a three-spot in the first inning was all Boston needed. Rafael Devers hit a one-out double before Abraham Toro singled and Marcelo Mayer walked with two outs to load the bases. Then, the suddenly-hot Trevor Story roped a near-grand slam that bounced off the top of the center field wall and plated three runs. It was all the support Crochet would need.
“That was great game-planning,” Cora joked. “We kicked the field goal, then we played good defense.”
The Red Sox, who were shut out Saturday and had dropped five of their last six, were able to escape Atlanta with a series win against a similarly middling Braves club. What was satisfying about the win is that it came on a Crochet Day behind a starter who leads baseball in innings (82) and strikeouts (tied at 101). After three straight losses with their No. 1 starter on the mound, the Red Sox improved to 7-6 in games he’s pitched so far.
“It’s huge,” said Story. “When he’s on the mound, we feel like we’re gonna win every time. He has pitched that way. We haven’t necessarily picked him up offensively. It was nice to do that today.”
Crochet’s ERA now sits at 1.98 through 13 outings. Few will be as long as Sunday’s. But he delivered when the Red Sox needed him.
“He’s the ace, and he acts like it,” Story said. “He wants that (seventh inning), and that’s what the big boys do.”
