NEW YORK (AP) — Garrett Crochet was in Boston’s dugout on the day before the playoffs began when manager Alex Cora picked up the phone to the bullpen to contact a member of the front office.
“`Tomorrow you’re going to make one call to the bullpen,’” Cora recalled the pitcher telling him.
“I said: `Maybe two,’” the manager responded.
“He’s like: `No, no, no. One. It’s going to be straight to Chappy,'” Cora said.
Crochet backed up his bravado with his pitches. He threw 117 of them, most in a postseason game in six years, besting Max Fried and the New York Yankees with a throwback performance on the mound.
The left-hander struck out 11 and walked none over 7 2/3 innings while allowing four hits as the Red Sox rallied for a 3-1 victory Tuesday night in an AL Wild Card Series opener. When he was pulled, Cora went directly to All-Star closer Aroldis Chapman. No setup men needed.
“Just being arrogant, to be honest. I didn’t actually expect that to be the case,” Crochet said.
Anthony Volpe put the Yankees ahead in the second with an opposite-field homer to right on a sinker. Crochet then retired 17 consecutive batters until Volpe’s one-out single in the eighth.
By then, Boston had taken a 2-1 lead. As soon as Fried left the game, Ceddanne Rafaela overcome an 0-2 count against reliever Luke Weaver to walk on 11 pitches. Nick Sogard doubled and pinch-hitter Masataka Yoshida lined a two-run single.
Crochet saved his hardest pitch for last, a 100.2 mph full-count offering on the inside corner at the knees that froze Austin Wells for a called third strike.
“That’s why we call him the beast,” Boston shortstop Trevor Story said.
Crochet went to full counts on four batters and struck out all four.
“We had some big 3-2 counts and some hitter’s counts and just weren’t able to come through,” Yankees first baseman Paul Goldschmidt said.
When Crochet reached the dugout after striking out Wells, he was clutched in a bear hug by fellow pitcher Lucas Giolito, his old Chicago White Sox teammate.
“He was aggressive. You could see it in his eyes before the game that he wanted it bad,” said Boston’s Alex Bregman, who in his 100th postseason game added an RBI double in the ninth off David Bednar.
Victory wasn’t assured until Chapman escaped a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the ninth.
The winner of Game 1 advanced in all 12 previous Wild Card Series, 10 in sweeps.
“Hopefully we can continue that,” Cora said.
A 26-year-old left-hander, Crochet was traded to Boston in December, escaping a White Sox team that lost 121 games in 2024, a major league record since 1900. He agreed in April to a $170 million, six-year contract that starts next year.
Crochet went 18-5 with a 2.59 ERA this season, leading the major leagues with 255 strikeouts and topping the AL with 205 1/3 innings.
“He’s just a guy that wants it bad,” Cora said. “He was in a situation last year that he was learning how to become a starter. He got traded to become the ace. He got paid like an ace, and since day one he’s acted like that.”
Corchet’s 117 pitches were the most in a postseason game since Washington’s Stephen Strasburg threw 117 over seven innings to beat St. Louis in Game 3 of the 2019 National League Championship Series. Just three outings this year extended to 117 pitches, by Cleveland’s Gavin Williams (126), San Francisco’s Justin Verlander (121) and Tampa Bay’s Zack Littell (117 ).
There hasn’t been a postseason complete game since Houston’s Justin Verlander against the Yankees in Game 2 of the 2019 American League Championship Series.
Crochet, however, doesn’t long for the bygone days of Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson.
“I don’t know if it is sustainable with my velocity,” he said. “I am not sure how hard they were throwing back then. I like to think I am prepared to do that even in today’s game.”
Crochet’s previous high was 112 pitches on June 1. A converted reliever who missed the 2022 season following Tommy John surgery, he is in just his second season as a starter — earning an All-Star selection in both years.
After the game, Cora told Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow the team had prepared Crochet for the moment.
“There’s going to be starts in the regular season that we have to take care of guys for this, 85 pitches against the Mets, skipping a start here and there, the All-Star break, doing all that stuff is for this to happen,” Cora said. “For how great he was tonight, I tip my hat to the medical staff because they’ve done an amazing job with a guy that had never pitched 200 innings, had never made more than 30 starts.”
Bregman knows all about aces, having played with Verlander and Gerrit Cole in Houston.
“They’re very similar. Very confident, aggressive, prepared, focused and determined,” he said. “It brings a confidence to your team that is so important, especially with postseason baseball. I’ve played with some of the best pitchers ever to do it and Garrett’s right up there.”
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
By RONALD BLUM
AP Baseball Writer
