On Tuesday night, Boston Red Sox starter Garrett Crochet put together an impressive performance. The southpaw hurler went seven scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Angels, striking out 10. Safe to assume the Red Sox took the win, right? Wrong.
Crochet was left with a no-decision as the Angels scored one run in the bottom of the eighth inning and two in the bottom of the 10th to walk off with an extra-innings victory. Crochet lowered his ERA to 2.06 on the season, and is tied for the most strikeouts in the Majors at 135. His reward? A 7-4 record overall, while Boston falls back below .500 at 40-41.
The Paul Skenes situation in Pittsburgh gets a lot of attention, but the Pirates were not really expected to be contenders this season. Crochet could arguably be in a more frustrating dilemma, as an offense that had high expectations entering the year continues to give him little to no run support — and just actively chose to ship away its best hitter.
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Red Sox offense continues to let down Garrett Crochet
The Red Sox did everything they thought they needed to this past offseason to build a competitve roster. The additions of Walker Buehler, Garrett Crochet and Alex Bregman had the media buzzing. So far, Crochet is doing his part, and then some: After Tuesday, he's the first Red Sox pitcher since Pedro Martinez in 2000 to have at least 110 strikeouts and allow fewer than 30 runs through his first 17 starts. Any time you are in the same conversation with turn-of-the-millennium Pedro, you're doing something right.
Unfortunately for Crochet, all he has to show for his impressive start is a 7-4 record and his team six games out of their division and 2.5 games out of the last AL Wild Card spot. His team has consistently failed to give him the support he needs to turn his performance into wins, and with Rafael Devers now in San Francisco, that doesn't figure to get better any time soon.
Crochet has said and done all the right things since being acquired last December. He already signed a six-year contract extension with Boston worth $170 million; and when the Devers trade sent media into a frenzy, the lefty didn't want to make excuses. But it's hard not to look back and start reading between the lines.
"Obviously he has a big presence in the lineup," Crochet said at the time. "We’ll miss that, but we can’t really just sit here and harp on that. I don’t think that does anybody in this room any good. I don’t think that that’s what the fan base wants to hear us say either ... We obviously have to keep pushing forward and we still have a lot of ground to make up to be the team we want to be.”
With the way things are trending, he could already be having some regrets. Crochet's first chance to opt out of his current contract is after the 2030 season. The Red Sox offense needs to step up in games Crochet is on the mound because he is putting together an historic season that deserves attention but is not getting it because of the lack of wins.