With the Red Sox bullpen gassed after three straight games in which the starting pitcher failed to finish five innings, it would’ve seemed logical that Alex Cora would lean on his ace to go deep into Wednesday’s game.
But asked pregame if having Crochet pitching gave him comfort, Cora offered an answer that proved prophetic.
“Yeah but no, we’ve got to be careful too, he’s very important to what we’re trying to accomplish, you know? And every five days to push him to the limit, we’re playing a dangerous game,” Cora said. “Obviously the conditions are not great, where we’re at bullpen-wise is where we’re at, we won the series yesterday, we want more, of course, but at the same time knowing that it’s 162 (games) and to do cool things in August, September and hopefully October, we have to be very careful.”
Hours later, Cora pulled Crochet with one out in the sixth inning of a tie ballgame even though the left-hander had only thrown 85 pitches. In doing so the Red Sox bullpen once again had to pitch more than three innings, and this time the group couldn’t hold the New York Mets at bay in what wound up being a 5-1 loss.
Brett Baty (2 for 3, 3 RBI) delivered what proved to be the game-winning hit with his two-run single in the top of the seventh, and the Red Sox offense collectively struck out a season-worst 16 times as a team.
Following the game Cora confirmed that the team had decided well in advance that Crochet’s outing would be shorter than usual and that it wasn’t a difficult decision to stick with.
“It’s not tough, it’s for the benefit of the player. We’re here for the long run and we need that guy to make his starts and for us to go to where we feel we can go, we need him,” Cora said postgame. “We’re going to find some days to take advantage of them regardless of the situation, we have to put the player first. He was very upset at the beginning and then he was OK with it. Obviously we were short but that doesn’t dictate what we’re going to do with our ace.”
Crochet said afterwards that he wasn’t told of the plan in advance.
“I wasn’t made aware of it before the game thankfully, that’s the last thing I want on my mind when I’m going out there ready to lay it all on the line,” Crochet said. “I have a lot of love and respect and trust in the front office and the coaching staff here, so if that’s their call I’m going to respect that.”
Coming off a tough-luck loss against reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale last Friday, Crochet found himself matched up against another worthy opponent Wednesday in New York’s Tylor Megill. The right-hander has been one of the Mets’ most overpowering arms all season, and he gave the Red Sox all kinds of trouble through the first four innings.
Wielding a mid-to-high 90s fastball while mixing in some effective breaking pitches, Megill struck out six of the first nine Red Sox batters he faced before striking out the side in a dominant fourth. Up to that point the Red Sox managed only two hits against the 29-year-old, with the lone scoring opportunity coming courtesy of a Nick Sogard ground rule double in the second.
Once the fifth began, however, the Red Sox began to figure Megill out. Boston loaded the bases with one out on singles by Sogard and Carlos Narvaez and a hit by pitch on Ceddanne Rafaela. That brought up Jarren Duran, and the outfielder crushed one 108.3 mph off the bat that looked ticketed for the right field bleachers.
On a normal late-May night it surely would have gone for a grand slam, but with temperatures a chilly 52 degrees at first pitch and dropping throughout the evening, Duran had to settle for a game-tying sacrifice fly.
Devers subsequently drew a walk to reload the bases and chase Megill, but reliever Huascar Brazoban was able to shut down the rally by striking out Alex Bregman looking.
On the other side, Crochet wasn’t as overpowering as usual, but he got the job done.
The left-hander limited the Mets to one run over 5.1 innings, and the only damage coming in the second on an RBI single by Brett Baty. The play nearly scored two, but Rafaela was able to throw out Luis Torrens at the plate to end the inning, with Narvaez completing the play with a great tag as Torrens reached home.
Crochet only struck out five batters, but three of those came courtesy of Soto, who looked completely discombobulated. Known for his mastery of the strike zone, Soto struck out looking in each of his first two trips to the plate, and in each at bat all three strikes were called.
Soto went down swinging his third time up, but that time he chased a sweeper well out of the zone, the sort of pitch he normally doesn’t sniff.
Following the last Soto strikeout, Cora emerged from the dugout to take the ball from his ace. Crochet appeared visibly frustrated and before Cora even reached him he took a step towards his manager and reached for his hand. Cora walked him back and held a brief meeting on the mound with all the infielders before motioning to the bullpen.
Crochet said later that Cora explained why he was being taken out, and he apologized for his outburst.
“I was frustrated, just wanted a chance to pick up my teammates, the bullpen, they’ve obviously worked really hard this series and I wanted to try to keep them out of it as much as possible,” Crochet said. “He was just letting me know, hey, we’re monitoring your workload, this sort of thing, and I said I get it.
“I apologized for yelling a curse word on the field when I saw him coming out there, I wasn’t trying to show him up, I was just really in the moment,” he continued. “I knew where my pitch count was and how my body was feeling so I was excited to attack the next hitter, but it was in no way my intention to show him up in any form.”
First up out of the bullpen was Liam Hendriks, who was among the only fresh arms available after the Red Sox used six relievers in Tuesday’s win. Once a top candidate for the closer job, Hendriks has pitched infrequently and mostly in low leverage situations since coming off the injured list, and while he was able to get two quick strikeouts to finish the sixth, things went sideways for the veteran in the seventh.
Hendriks allowed three straight singles to load the bases with no outs, and all three inherited runners came around to score after left-hander Brennan Bernardino allowed a two-run single to Baty and a sacrifice fly to Soto, which like Duran’s might have gone for a grand slam on a warmer night.
New York extended its lead on a solo home run by Francisco Lindor off Sean Newcomb in the top of the ninth, and the Red Sox offense never threatened again after squandering its bases loaded chance in the fifth. It was a particularly miserable night for Bregman, who went 0 for 4 with four strikeouts in the loss.
Weather permitting, the Red Sox will open a four-game set against the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday.
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