Garrett Crochet didn’t quite flirt with a no-hitter in this weekend’s rematch with the Chicago White Sox at Fenway Park, but with each passing start the Red Sox ace continues to prove he’s the guy.
Yet great as he was on Saturday, the left-hander still wound up needing some help.
Crochet was in full control again Saturday afternoon, throwing six shutout innings in his latest gem, and after the White Sox rallied against the bullpen to force extra innings, Triston Casas wound up delivering a walk-off RBI double off the Green Monster to give Boston a 4-3 win in 10 innings.
Crochet struck out seven, drew 17 whiffs and held the White Sox to four hits and two walks spread out across his outing, and Casas’ big hit came after Kristian Campbell drew a walk to load the bases with one out.
Acquired from the White Sox in a blockbuster offseason trade, Crochet broke out as one of baseball’s top young arms last season and was brought in to be the type of clear-cut ace the Red Sox have lacked in recent years. He signed a six-year, $170 million deal shortly after Opening Day, and while he’s only about a month into his Red Sox career, the early returns have been promising.
With Saturday’s start Crochet is now one of nine players in Red Sox history who has begun his career with the franchise with five starts of at least five innings and four earned runs or fewer allowed total. The last was Michael Wacha in 2022, and the others all came in 1945 or earlier.
Overall Crochet boasts a 1.13 ERA with 35 strikeouts over 32 innings pitched on the season.
Saturday Crochet didn’t give the White Sox any room to breathe, but for the second straight outing White Sox right-hander Shane Smith was able to hang tough.
The Danvers native, pitching at Fenway Park for the first time as a big leaguer, shut out the Red Sox through the first four innings. The former Governor’s Academy star hit three batters and walked one, but he didn’t surrender his first hit until the bottom of the fourth, a harmless single that didn’t lead to any further damage.
But eventually the Red Sox got the bats going, with Ceddanne Rafaela hitting a double, Jarren Duran a single and Rafael Devers a massive three-run home run the opposite way over the Green Monster in the bottom of the fifth.
Smith wound up allowing the three runs over 4.2 innings with four hits and three strikeouts in his first outing at his childhood ballpark. Jared Shuster, a New Bedford native and a former college teammate of Smith’s at Wake Forest, followed out of the bullpen and held the Red Sox scoreless over 1.1 innings in his first appearance at Fenway.
What was shaping up to be a sleepy Red Sox victory took a turn in the seventh when a defensive miscue wound up coming back to bite Boston. Greg Weissert, who entered the day having allowed just two earned runs through his first nine appearances, wasn’t sharp but should have escaped the inning without incident after appearing to draw an inning-ending double play. But Trevor Story couldn’t handle Triston Casas’ throw to second, and the misplay led to an RBI single by Chase Meidroth and a two-run home run by Luis Robert Jr. that tied the game at 3-3.
Former Red Sox left-hander Cam Booser, who was honored as the 2024 Tony Conigliaro Award winner prior to the game, pitched a scoreless seventh, and Justin Slaten came on in the eighth for Boston and retired all three batters he faced. Since allowing a leadoff single in the seventh inning of Boston’s April 3 win over Baltimore, Slaten has now retired 18 straight batters over his last six appearances.
Then Aroldis Chapman came on with the game tied and worked around a leadoff double to pitch a scoreless ninth. In the process the closer had six pitches measured at over 100 mph, including a first-pitch fastball to Chase Meidroth that clocked 102.3 mph.
According to the team, that’s the fastest pitch by a Red Sox pitcher in the Statcast era, and possibly in club history.
The Red Sox had a prime opportunity to win it in the ninth when Carlos Narvaez led off the inning with a loud line drive high off the Green Monster. Narvaez should have been held to a single, but the White Sox wound up throwing the ball away trying to catch him off the bag at first.
That put pinch runner David Hamilton at second with no outs, but the White Sox recovered by throwing Hamilton out at third on Rafaela’s subsequent infield chopper. Boston got the winning run in scoring position again anyway when Rafaela advanced on a wild pitch, but White Sox reliever Jordan Leasure struck out Alex Bregman to send the game to extras.
Garrett Whitlock held the White Sox scoreless in the 10th thanks to two strikeouts and an impressive running catch by Wilyer Abreu in right field to end the inning, setting the table for Casas to clinch Boston’s fourth consecutive win.