BOSTON — Perhaps a decade or so from now, Garrett Crochet will be relying on smarts and guile like 18-year veteran Clayton Kershaw, the future Hall of Famer he matched up with for the first time on an electric Saturday night at Fenway Park.
But Crochet is currently at the height of his powers — pitching with the sheer dominance Kershaw did for so many years.
Briefly knocked down by a home run by Shohei Ohtani to start the game and another solo blow by Teoscar Hernández two batters later, Crochet allowed nothing of substance for the rest of the night.
While leading the Red Sox to a 4-2 victory over the defending World Series champion Dodgers, Crochet’s filthy arsenal had even stars like Ohtani and Freddie Freeman taking feeble swings.
“I made two bad pitches. Been watching them on repeat, too. FOX has played them 30 times. You’d think that the Dodgers won tonight,” quipped Crochet.
“But no, no real adjustment [after the first]. The one [to Hernández] hurt. I went into the start telling [catcher Carlos Narváez], let’s really establish the four-seam today.
“Get clipped on one middle-middle to the best hitter in the league. Big whoop. But then to give one up on the sweeper after not really establishing the four yet — that’s one that I regret a little bit. But, I was 15 pitches deep after the first, I still had a lot of game left — just myself personally, and especially for the team.”
Over six innings and 100 pitches, Crochet (12-4, 2.23 ERA) struck out 10 while scattering eight hits and allowing just the two early runs. It was Crochet’s fifth double-digit strikeout game in his 22 starts this season.
“That guy’s an absolute dog on the mound,” said Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran. “I don’t think any of us were worried. They got their homers; they got their runs. But we all knew at the end of the day, he was going to compete, even if he didn’t have his best stuff. We knew he was going to give us his best effort, and he went out there and shoved. And that was awesome to see.”
It wasn’t quite as awesome for the Dodgers.
“He started bearing down, the velocity ticked up and then hits were harder to come by,” said Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts.
Perhaps the biggest out of the night for Crochet was the showdown with Ohtani in the fourth inning, with two on and two outs and the Red Sox clinging to a 3-2 lead.
Crochet struck out the megastar on three pitches, completing the sequence with a nasty cutter that dove into the right-handed batter’s box.
“Solo shots, we’ll take those,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “And after that he did an amazing job. He’s versatile enough that he can change his game plan throughout the evening. It seems like they were on the fastball early on. There were some loud outs, even in the second inning. But after that, he settled down and gave us what we needed.”
Crochet’s teammates did enough against Kershaw, mostly on the strength of a three-run second inning that was keyed by Duran’s two-run triple.
The speedy Duran later added another triple, his 12th of the season, and a double.
“It’s always fun to run out a triple,” said Duran. “[Third base coach Kyle Hudson’s] not giving me much direction. He’s making me slide over there at third every single time. So maybe one time he’ll let me stand up over there.”
While Duran created the best aesthetics of the game, the night mostly belonged to Crochet, who has two of the three wins the Red Sox have in their eight games since the All-Star break.
“A come-from-behind win, as well, against obviously, a really good team, one of the best teams in the league,” said Crochet. “Hopefully, we will continue to build on this and keep moving forward.”
When Crochet looks back at his career one day, facing off against Kershaw will probably be one he will remember.
“There are certain times you do feel like you are matching up against the other pitcher,” Crochet said. “And against a unanimous Hall of Famer, that’s definitely the case.”
Crochet’s strong effort set up a compelling Sunday afternoon rubber match between two of MLB’s most historic franchises with Boston righty Walker Buehler taking the mound against his former team for the first time.
