BOSTON -- Dressed in his home white Red Sox uniform and pitching off the main mound at Fenway Park on Friday afternoon, Garrett Crochet's potential comeback was starting to come more into visual form.
However, Crochet and the Red Sox will both continue to take his recovery step by step.
Friday's step -- the third side session he has thrown in the last week, but first on the main diamond -- was another productive one.
“It was good. Accomplished what I wanted to,” said Crochet, who threw 25 pitches.
And what was it he was trying to accomplish?
“Keep ticking up intensity. Introducing the sweeper. General strike throwing as well,” said Crochet.
Throwing at about 80 to 90 percent intensity, Crochet threw some fastballs in the 92-93-mph range.
“Which is fairly good for a bullpen,” added Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy.
“When it comes to bullpens, I used to be that guy, but not anymore where I can't really throw game intensity in a bullpen,” Crochet said. “So, that's probably as close as I'm going to get going full bore.”
The key step will be for Crochet to face hitters. Before that, he will throw at least one more bullpen session, early next week at Fenway.
While Crochet badly wants to rejoin the Red Sox either late in the regular season or early in the postseason as a one- or two-inning reliever, he is being cautiously optimistic due to the letdown he had a few months ago.
In late May, about a month after he went on the injured list with left shoulder inflammation, Crochet threw live batting practice.
Just days later, he was shut down from throwing and had to spend the next several weeks strengthening the muscles that surround his rotator cuff.
“I feel like I got ahead of myself when I threw that live [BP] back in May,” said Crochet. “And then things obviously took a turn as the injury matured. But right now, it's just taking it step by step.”
But he likes the way he is feeling.
“Yeah, my shoulder feels really good,” Crochet said. “For me, it's like the rest of my body is getting acclimated to throwing this intensity again. I had four months to work on the shoulder, and it's in a really good spot. It's in a good spot.”
While it’s hard not to be excited about the impact Crochet could make for the Red Sox, the club isn’t going to get ahead of itself.
“I know there's a lot of excitement seeing him get on a mound, especially on the game mound. The game mound pushes intensity, so the fastball velocity is up a mile an hour, which is good,” Tracy said. “But we're still in ‘check one box at a time' mode. Not, ‘Oh, he threw off a mound, let's rush Garrett back.’
“We’re mindful of what he can bring, and also very mindful of what he means for the future. So as long as we keep taking steps forward, we're in a good spot. He took another one today, and we'll see how he does over the course of next week as well.”
Ideally, Crochet would pitch in some kind of game -- at Triple-A Worcester or for the Red Sox in a post-clinch situation before taking the ball in the playoffs. But he isn’t banking on anything.
“I'm not sure,” said Crochet. “Trending well right now. Have a lot more stuff to tick off. This is my first time throwing sweepers in a bullpen, so it'd be a pretty big leap to put myself in a game mindset right now. It's also like, whatever I say to you guys, and then if I don't do it, I look ... [dumb]. And I've done that a couple of times. So, really, just keep trending, keep doing what the team and the staff asks me to do.”