WEST SACRAMENTO — For a pitcher of Garrett Crochet’s caliber, a bad start like last week’s seven-run, four-homer game against the Guardians can seem like just a blip.
To Crochet, it sure didn’t feel that way.
“I was pretty pissed,” the Red Sox left-hander admitted.
Crochet evidently took out his frustrations on the Athletics in Monday’s series opener at Sutter Health Park. He dominated the A’s over seven innings in a 7-0 win, allowing just three hits and striking out 10 without walking a batter.
Crochet retook the Major League lead in strikeouts from Tarik Skubal — he now has 228 — and posted his seventh double-digit strikeout game (second in MLB behind only Skubal) in a crucial return to form.
“He went out there against a tough lineup and pounded the strike zone, had good stuff and gave us more than enough,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said.
With less than three weeks left in the regular season, there’s hardly a better time for Crochet to find his footing. While it hardly seems like anything was amiss — Crochet had a 1.80 ERA in three starts before Tuesday’s misstep against the Guardians — the lefty said things went back further than that.
For not one but five starts, dating back to a four-inning, five-run game against Houston on Aug. 11, Crochet felt like he was foundering.
“I was kind of searching,” he said.
A piece of advice from catcher Connor Wong paid major dividends. Last weekend, Wong worked with Crochet to refine the pitcher’s front hip movement on his fastball, allowing Crochet to reach more extension and locate the pitch to the glove side — inside to right-handed batters and away to lefties.
The change not only benefited Crochet’s four-seam fastball but his cutter and sinker as well.
“It got my four-seam back dialed in,” Crochet said. “It even allowed the front-door two-seam to become a weapon.”
That was pretty clear on Monday as Crochet methodically mowed down a talented A’s lineup with every weapon in his arsenal: He fanned seven different hitters and recorded strikeouts on five pitch types.
Rookie first baseman Nick Kurtz? Sinker down the middle for a called third strike. Slugger Tyler Soderstrom? A four-seamer up and in for a K (twice, in fact). Second baseman Zack Gelof? A perfect slider low and away.
Staked to a lead from the top of the first inning on shortstop Trevor Story’s solo homer, Crochet had everything working Monday.
“One run feels like five when he’s pitching,” Story said. “He had the good stuff tonight.”
So good, in fact, that Crochet expected to cruise right into the eighth inning. The left-hander was surprised to be pulled from the game after the seventh, but he was certainly less surprised when he was reminded he had thrown 101 pitches — a total that had snuck up on him.
“I felt like each pitch looked very deliberate tonight,” he said. “I never felt like I was really exerting, and that I had a lot of energy left in the tank.”
That’s great news for the Red Sox, who slightly backed off Crochet’s usage midseason to preserve the pitcher’s arm for what’s to come.
At 185 1/3 innings, Crochet is nearly 40 innings past last year’s total of 146. But as Cora said after Monday’s win, Boston has no plan to limit Crochet’s innings as the regular season winds down.
That’s just fine by Crochet.
“Every win counts here down the stretch, so for me it’s just trying to help the team put our best foot forward every game,” he said. “I think I’ve got three or four left. I’m losing track at this point. Every start ‘til the finish line and the ones that are following that, just really doing the best thing I can to help the team.”
On Monday, there wasn’t much more Crochet could have done to help out the Red Sox. His offense had his back with three runs in the first two innings and four more later in the game, but Crochet kept A’s hitters off the bases and kept runs off the board.
If his latest start is any evidence, what the lefty considered a rough patch appears to be well behind him.
“He bounced back after a tough start last time,” Story said. “Like I’ve said all year, that’s what the big boys do. That’s what the aces do. He’s certainly been that for us ever since he got here. He was in form tonight.”
