BOSTON – It was supposed to be “get right” day for Garrett Crochet on Sunday afternoon at Fenway Park, and for four innings it looked like it would be just that.
The ace looked like he'd suitably bounced back from the worst start of his career six days ago and had two outs and nobody on in the top of the fifth inning with the Red Sox and Tigers locked in a 1-1 tie.
This is how it has gone so far in 2026 – both for Crochet and his team.
“I felt like I was just dominating until I wasn't,” Crochet said after the 6-2 loss to the Tigers.
The undoing started innocently enough when Jahmai Jones clipped Crochet for a solo shot on a 2-0 sinker that didn’t do what it was supposed to.
The aggravation would come when Gleyber Torres came up next and walked on four pitches. And after Matt Vierling kept the rally alive with a single, Crochet got even more aggravated when he fell behind in the count 3-1 to Dillon Dingler. The next pitch was mashed for a three-run homer that made it a 5-1 game, as frustration in the form of boos came over a soggy, cold crowd.
How did it all fall apart so fast?
“It sucks that that's the best I've felt all year [and that happened],” Crochet said. “Just inconsistent. It happened in the first inning also, two quick outs then lost the zone a little bit and shied away from contact [and gave up a run].”
After Crochet lasted just 1 2/3 innings against the Twins while getting pounded for nine hits and 11 runs (10 earned) and no strikeouts, all eyes were on how he would recover.
While that start at Target Field was an unmitigated disaster, Sunday was more of a mixed bag. Crochet was tantalizingly close to having a good start. And then he didn’t.
When Crochet notched two straight punchouts to open the fifth, he had one walk and eight strikeouts and looked as in control as he was for so many of his starts last year.
And then, everything changed for the lefty who has a 7.88 ERA in his first five starts after finishing second in the American League’s Cy Young Award race last season.
“Moving in the right direction for sure, but it’s wins and losses,” Crochet said. “So it sucks, even though I feel like I am moving in the right direction. And I also happened to lose the game for us. Move on to the next one.”
The next one will likely come on Friday night in Baltimore, by which point the Red Sox hope to be in a better place offensively and take some stress off Crochet and the rest of their pitchers.
Through the first three games of this four-game series against the Tigers, the Sox have scored just four times in 28 innings.
“We need to give our starters and the bullpen more room to work with, because no one wants to go out there and feel like they have to be perfect every night. It's just not baseball,” said veteran shortstop Trevor Story.
The bats will try to get revved up early on Monday for the annual 11:10 a.m. ET contest on Patriots' Day, when the Sox try to salvage a split of this four-game series.
The one thing that has become clear through the first 21 games is that the Red Sox win when their starting pitcher has a good game. To wit, Boston is 8-0 when the starting pitcher goes six innings and 0-13 when the starting pitcher does not.
“That’s the nature of the game,” said Crochet. “It's a pretty surprising thing. I'm surprised I've given up 16 runs my past two starts and haven't made it into the sixth in either of them. I'm surprised that I'm letting the team down at the level that I am right now.
“But, we know that there's going to be a stretch where we're hitting all the breaks. Right now, it's kind of just like we’ve got to make our own good fortune. And, in order to get the ball moving in the right direction, we got to start pushing it."
The Red Sox look forward to the day – and they hope it comes soon – that the offense and the pitching click in unison.
“I didn't see this kind of start coming, that's for sure,” said Story. “But it's baseball, and we feel like our process is good. We feel like the people we have are good. It's just a matter of time. I know we keep saying that, but baseball is a crazy game, and it can turn quick.”