BOSTON -- Pitching the 11th game of the season for his heavily slumping Red Sox, ace Garrett Crochet knew what the moment called for on Tuesday night at chilly Fenway Park.
He needed to go into Beast mode. And fittingly enough, that’s what all of his teammates call him.
Especially when the opponent was Brewers phenom Jacob Misiorowski, who came out with blazing heat, striking out five in a row and hitting triple digits with regularity.
Crochet, currently in the prime of his baseball existence, was his top-shelf self for six innings before tiring in the seventh. But the performance was enough to lift the Red Sox to a tightly contested 3-2 victory before 33,193 anxious spectators.
“That’s why we call him Beast. He’s our ace,” said shortstop Trevor Story. “He went out there and did what he always does and set the tone from pitch one, attacking. And he stopped it, right where we needed to stop it. We needed this win tonight and we got it, thanks to Beast.”
Though the offense generated just three hits against Misiorowski and Milwaukee’s bullpen, Story got the big knock of the night, raking a two-run double into the corner in left field with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth. That was just after Brewers manager Pat Murphy had lifted his 24-year-old hurler at 101 pitches. Caleb Durbin got a third run home on a pinch-hit fielder’s choice grounder.
After that came Crochet’s one lament of an otherwise strong night at the office.
“For me, going into today, [the goal] was shutdown innings,” Crochet said. “Still failed at that today, but [Zack] Kelly did a hell of a job just maintaining the lead.”
Overall though, Crochet very much did get the job done on a night it was needed. He limited the Brewers to five hits and two runs over 6 1/3 innings, walking two and striking out seven while throwing 107 pitches.
“You don’t want to come in and say it’s going to be a pitchers’ duel, because you want to go get that guy,” Brewers right fielder Sal Frelick said. “But you know he’s going to throw 110 pitches and he’s a competitor. It’s always a fun matchup to go against guys like that. We kind of knew we were going to be in a dogfight today.”
With the Red Sox hungry to go deeper into the playoffs than last season’s Wild Card Series ouster, nobody was expecting a first 10 games like they endured.
That put more pressure than normal on Crochet to be the stopper, and he relishes moments like that, particularly when he gave up a three-run homer to Carlos Correa in the series finale in Houston last Wednesday that led to Boston getting swept to cap a 1-5 road trip.
“I’m kind of always looking for a little bit of an edge, wherever you can get it,” Crochet said. “I think that definitely felt like we needed to stop the bleeding.”
A multitude of things had gone wrong for the Red Sox coming out of the gate as they started a season 2-8 for the ninth time in club history.
But for this one night, Crochet made things feel right again, and he put his team within a win of their first series victory of the season.
“It feels good for sure,” said Story. “And it's a sweet feeling to win here, especially at home after the start we’ve had, but that’s in the past now.”
Story, who opened the season in a slump, has bounced back the last two nights by making much better contact. Following his team’s 8-6 loss on Monday in which they surrendered a 3-0 lead, Story just wanted to make sure he was in the lineup on Tuesday.
“Last night he walked into my office,” said manager Alex Cora. “We’re watching the [NCAA championship] game, the basketball game. And he's looking for me. He’s like, ‘You got a moment?’ I’m like, ‘What do you got?’ ‘I’m playing tomorrow.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, you are.’”
Story was just making sure, because utility man Isiah Kiner-Falefa was told ahead of time he was in the lineup. But that was at third base, not Story’s position of shortstop.
“Izzy told him he was playing, so he thought he was gonna get a day off,” said Cora. “I mean, that tells me a lot, where he's at. So, it happens quickly with him. Last year, we saw how he turned it around after the Milwaukee series. He took off. Yesterday, he put together good at-bats. Even today, the strikeout in the first inning, 3-2 count. So hopefully this is the beginning of something cool for him.”
And the Red Sox hope they are at last ready to heat up.