'It's just getting back on the horse': Crochet returns to ace form to snap Red Sox's 4-game skid

BALTIMORE -- The Red Sox can’t fix all their problems in one day, but they did have themselves one therapeutic Saturday afternoon at Camden Yards.

Garrett Crochet was in a slump? Not anymore.

The lefty ace shook off his previous two starts (a combined 15 earned runs allowed) by turning in a vintage performance (six scoreless innings with three hits, two walks and seven strikeouts) that led the Red Sox to a 17-1 victory over the Orioles to snap a four-game losing streak.

The offense was in a slump for the ages? Not on this day. A 17-run, 17-hit attack led by Andruw Monasterio (grand slam, two doubles) washed away the bitter taste of Friday night’s 10-3 loss, when Brayan Bello allowed five of the six homers the Orioles smashed.

“That’s [expletive] baseball, man,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “It’s just unreal. That happened last night, and then we showed up today. You got to give credit to them. It was a noon game, and we had our BP slot, and you saw them taking grounders and the outfield work and all that. So that says a lot about the group, and we’ve got a chance to win the series tomorrow. So it was a good all-around game.”

While putting up a football-type of score in the runs department is always fun, the most impactful thing about the day was the performance of Crochet.

He is as important to Boston’s fortunes as anyone on the club. How much relief did Crochet feel after his bounce-back effort?

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” said Crochet. “I mean, I know I don't suck, but when you're not seeing results, that’s just not fun. Today, especially vs. a division opponent -- a very potent lineup, too, through and through -- and following last night's game, too, to be able to have shutdown innings multiple times today? That felt really good.”

For Crochet, the formula to a rebound performance that improved his record to 3-3 and lowered his ERA to 6.30 wasn’t complex.

It went something like this: Bring the heat.

The ace went to work, featuring an arsenal heavy on four-seamers (59 percent) but also mixing in some nasty sweepers and effective cutters and sinkers. He threw 90 pitches, 57 of them for strikes.

The plan was by the design of catcher Connor Wong, and executed with precision by Crochet.

“Pretty heavy with the four,” Crochet said. “Connor did a great job calling the game. We've been trying to lowkey search for the past three starts now. ‘What is it that I need to do to game plan for teams?’ And Connor went into today with ‘no one's hit your four all season. So we're just going to throw it until they do,’ and that worked out pretty well for us.”

Every time Crochet had a leverage spot, he came through. And it wasn’t just with the fastball. When the always-dangerous Gunnar Henderson came up to the plate with two on and two outs in the third inning, he represented the tying run.

On 2-2, Crochet froze the Baltimore star on a sweeper.

“Someone asked me about my sweeper after my last outing, and I was like, 'That’s not really a glue pitch in my arsenal,'” Crochet said. "So I was thinking about it a lot. I was like, ‘man, my sweeper has been sucking lately’, and that was a good one.”

Did Crochet learn anything during the last couple of weeks?

“Nothing I didn't already know. I won't say it's not being afraid to fail, because I'm terrified to fail,” said Crochet. “I think that most guys in the big leagues are and that's what drives you to continue to work and to continue to push for success, but it's just being okay with it and knowing how to fail and how to bounce back. It's just getting back on the horse.”

A day after the Orioles handed Bello the worst start of his career, they could barely touch Crochet.

"He's an awesome pitcher, man, a Cy Young candidate,” said Orioles outfielder Tyler O’Neill. “Really good fastball, good breaking stuff, so it's always a battle in there facing him. He was hitting the spots today, a lot of paint. Tough to do much with that."

With paint and heat, and everything in between, Crochet turned in his first scoreless outing since Opening Day in Cincinnati.

Any potential path toward a resurgence by the slow-starting Red Sox (10-17) includes a prolonged stretch of dominance from Crochet.

“That’s our guy, so whenever he's out there, you want to get some runs early to help him settle in a little bit,” said Red Sox third baseman Caleb Durbin. “He didn’t need a lot of help today.”