How Garrett Crochet Assessed Highly Anticipated First Start With Red Sox

Garrett Crochet was viewed as the ace of the Boston Red Sox when they traded for him this offseason.

The imposing 6-foot-6, 245-pound left-hander got his first chance to prove he was worthy of that label in Boston’s 5-2 season-opening win over the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field on Thursday.

It wasn’t a dominant start from Crochet, but he still did his part with a solid outing. He pitched five innings, allowing two runs on five hits with two walks and four strikeouts. Crochet certainly knew he left room for improvement on the mound.

“It was kind of a grinder day from the start,” Crochet said. “I felt like I struggled with consistent execution. Maybe took a few too many shots in the first couple innings trying to get swing and miss and kind of dug myself in a hole with pitch count early. But later on in the game, I just started trusting the defense and trusting everybody other than myself and just trying to fill up the zone the best I could.”

Crochet’s command being off was evident in the first two innings. He issued a two-out walk in the bottom of the first and started the next frame with an eight-pitch at-bat with Jake Burger, which resulted in a base on balls.

The Rangers made Crochet pay for the leadoff walk as back-to-back singles plated a run. But Crochet got into a groove after that, retiring eight straight batters as he relied mostly on his cutter — he threw it more than any other pitch. That stretch for Crochet ended in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a two-out double from Kyle Higashioka, which gave Texas the lead.

Crochet’s day came to an end after throwing 88 pitches, 61 of which were for strikes. Red Sox manager Alex Cora appeared to have to do some convincing in the dugout when he pulled Crochet, who looked to pitch deeper into the contest.

Crochet still hasn’t thrown more than five innings in a start since June 30 of last year. But that was by design, with the Chicago White Sox limiting Crochet’s workload just a couple of seasons removed from Tommy John surgery.

And with a full season ahead and the Red Sox leaning on Crochet as their ace, Alex Cora wasn’t going to push things with Crochet, either.

“He was good,” Cora said. “A lot of cutters. Velo was OK. I think he found his fastball kind of halfway through the outing. Of course he wanted to keep going, but we’re in the business of taking care of him. We have to do that.”