MINNEAPOLIS -- Wait, what?
Garrett Crochet's dramatic stumble in Monday night’s eventual 13-6 loss to the Twins at Target Field was shocking to everyone who witnessed it.
The overall line (1 2/3 innings, nine hits, 11 runs, 10 earned runs, three walks, no strikeouts) painted a grim picture of the worst of Crochet’s 68 career starts. In Crochet's first 35 starts for Boston, he was 20-6 with a 2.63 ERA.
So the question after the game – posed to several of the key participants – was pretty obvious. What happened?
Answers, it turned out, were tough to come by.
“I mean, it's tough to say,” said Crochet. “Command as a whole has been spotty. I've gotten away with it a little this early in the year, but tonight, they made me pay. It was weak contact, hard contact, walks, hit by pitch. A little bit of everything.”
Heading into the series, the talk was of how Boston’s rotation at last surged through its most recent turn in the rotation, notching a 1.52 ERA.
Monday night’s madness was the last thing Red Sox pitching coach Andrew Bailey expected.
“Yeah, it's a little eye-opening, obviously. I think there's a little frustration and curiosity,” Bailey said. “It happened really quickly, so we’ve just got to move past it.”
Not that it was of much consolation for a Boston team (6-10) trying to fully regain its footing after a 2-8 start, but it should be noted Crochet was the latest top-notch lefty to get beaten by the 10-7 Twins, who are second in the American League with 92 runs.
“The stuff was down,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “That's the reality of it. But they've been doing that to a lot of lefties lately. Like I said before the game, [Tarik] Skubal and Framber [Valdez], plus two lefties in Toronto, and now Garrett.”
Boston’s ace lefty labored through the first inning, throwing 31 pitches and giving up four runs.
Anyone can have a bad inning.
What was more surprising was that the second inning was much worse for Crochet, as the Twins seized on his lack of command. The first six Twins hitters reached in the second, with Victor Caratini’s three-run homer serving as the big blow. Crochet briefly settled to get the next two batters, only to give up a parting solo shot to Ryan Kreidler.
By the time Cora came to get the two-time All-Star, the Red Sox were down 11-0 with two outs in the second inning. Crochet left having thrown 55 pitches, and just 30 of them for strikes.
Cora, Bailey and Crochet all said with complete conviction that Crochet isn’t experiencing any health issues.
“All the work has been very consistent between starts,” Bailey said. “He's been able to post, throw his bullpens, get all his good work in, so no curiosity or questions there. It's just that some mistakes got handled. We didn't open up the away side of the plate. Good right-handed lineup looking for middle-in mistakes.”
This was the first time Crochet gave up more than seven earned runs. The nine hits allowed equaled a career high. His only shorter start was due to a rain-suspended game when he threw only four pitches. That was also the only previous time Crochet didn’t have a strikeout in a start.
Crochet will take the ball next on Sunday against the Tigers at Fenway. By that time, he will have done a deep dive on what happened in this mishap against the Twins, which included a subtle drop in velocity and just three whiffs, his fewest except for that aforementioned, four-pitch rain-shortened outing two years ago.
Here are some other metrics the Red Sox will come across as they look at what went wrong.
Crochet allowed eight hard-hit batted balls (95+ mph EV) on 14 batted balls, good for a 57.1 percent hard-hit rate. That's tied for the third-highest in any start where he's allowed at least 10 batted balls. He got called strikes + whiffs on 12.7 percent of his pitches (7 of 55), the lowest of any start of his career
“Everything went so quick. Next time, if this happens, we have to figure it out quicker and do something better,” said catcher Carlos Narváez. “He was executing and attacking, not afraid, and they were aggressive. It doesn’t feel good. We don’t want that. I know Beast doesn’t want that. He’s a Beast. I know the next outing is going to be different.”