Red Sox takeaways: Garrett Crochet frustrated with rocky start; Alex Cora nearing milestone

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BOSTON — In his last start before Thursday, Garrett Crochet admitted feeling off on the mound despite turning in a pristine 1.13 ERA through his first five starts.

“I kind of feel like I’m getting away with murder. It’s only a matter of time until I get caught,” he said Saturday after tossing six scoreless innings. “It’s only a matter of time before I get burned.”

That time came Thursday as Crochet labored through the first two innings, needing 54 pitches and allowing the Seattle Mariners to score four runs. Crochet lasted just five innings, issuing a career-high five walks while throwing a career-high 110 pitches. The Red Sox offense had little to show, collecting four hits, two of which came from Alex Bregman, as the team fell 4-3 to the Mariners.

It marked the Mariners’ first series win at Fenway Park in over a decade. The last time came when they swept the Red Sox on Aug. 22-24, 2014.

“The game was the first two innings that I pitched, that was really what lost us the game today,” Crochet said.

Every top starter gets knocked around at some point, and Crochet’s day could have been far worse if he hadn’t managed to reel it in the third through fifth innings.

Crochet allowed a two-run double in the first, but Bregman cut the lead in half with a solo homer in the bottom of the first.

Breggy hit this one over everything! pic.twitter.com/yxr1QvuAsM

— Red Sox (@RedSox) April 24, 2025

The lefty couldn’t stop the bleeding in the second, though. He loaded the bases with no outs on a walk and two singles before allowing a sacrifice fly and a run-scoring groundout, making it 4-1. He managed to escape without further damage, inducing another groundout.

A frustrated Crochet said he’s been pitching too fine and needs to rely more on being the power pitcher who dominated the league last year.

“I think just pitching passively,” he said. “I’ve been talking about it in my past couple pressers, getting to the glove side. It became something where I was trying to pitch instead of just throw. I’ve always been a bit of a thrower, which is just who I am. Once I kind of started getting back to my roots and just being a power pitcher later in the game, the walks were still there, but at least able to get guys out.”

It’s a reminder that Crochet is entering just his second full season as a starter, and while he’s coming off a terrific first year in the rotation with the Chicago White Sox last year, there’s still a learning curve and development to be done for the 25-year-old.

Crochet noted he’s been overthinking his sequencing, relying too much on offspeed pitches rather than his dominant four-seamer.

“That’s what got me to the big leagues and what helped me make a name for myself last year,” he said. “No reason to get away from that, even if they know what’s coming.”

He also noted he should have been happier with his other starts over the first month, rather than always looking for something to improve. He said trying to be too fine is what’s gotten him in trouble.

“Referencing how I was not happy with the success that I was having, feeling like I had work to do, that was the wrong approach to have,” he said. “Sometimes you’ve got to take the good with the bad. And for me today, it’s just kind of getting back to who I am, and that’s just filling up the zone throwing fastballs middle-middle, and if you hit it, you hit it. It’s a lot better than trying to place one on the inner rail and leaving it out over and giving up an extra base hit like I did in the second inning.”

Nevertheless, Crochet managed to throw five innings, allowing four runs on five hits along with five walks while still striking out nine and inducing 17 swings-and-misses. He threw a career-high 110 pitches, 65 for strikes.

Bregman added an RBI single in the third, making it 4-2, but the Red Sox only recorded three hits off Seattle starter Bryan Woo. Carlos Narvaez hit a solo homer in the eighth to pull Boston within 4-3, but the offense stalled from there.

“I mean we got 14 wins, right? We’re OK,” manager Alex Cora said. “We’re almost playing .500 baseball, so we can be better. But we can be worse, too. Just go out to Cleveland and try to win the next series.”

Bullpen buckles down

After allowing runs in each of the first two games of the series, the bullpen had a solid day Thursday, covering four innings after Crochet exited. Greg Weissert held Seattle scoreless in the sixth, and Liam Hendriks battled a rocky outing in the seventh to escape unscathed.

Hendriks, in just his third big-league appearance since returning Sunday after 22 months, is still finding his command. The right-hander had a 1-2-3 ninth inning Tuesday against the Mariners, needing just seven pitches, but Thursday was a different story.

He issued a leadoff walk before getting a clutch double play. But then he walked two more batters before allowing a shallow single to center that Kristian Campbell fielded cleanly and fired home, holding the runner at third. Hendriks buckled down and got JP Crawford to strike out to end the threat, but threw 32 pitches, just 16 for strikes. Cora said he’s still learning how and when to use Hendriks as he builds back up, and while it was a rough outing command-wise, Hendriks’ ability to get out of it unscathed was promising.

Luis Guerrero, who had just been called up prior to the game, pitched the final two innings. Guerrero took Josh Winckowski’s spot in the bullpen after Winckowski was optioned to Triple-A Worcester. Winckowski threw 80 pitches in relief Wednesday night and would not have been available to pitch for at least four days.

Connor Wong on the mend

Wong is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment Sunday with Triple-A Worcester. The catcher has been out with a fractured right pinky finger since April 8.

At this point, Wong said gripping a bat is the biggest issue and he has good days and bad, but that he’s felt good catching-wise. He’s caught bullpens for Kutter Crawford, Tanner Houck and Walker Buehler this week. Wong noted he’ll wear a protective pad on his hand when hitting, but that he can’t do anything while catching because he needs his right hand to throw back to the pitcher.

“I’ve been feeling good,” he said. “It’s moving along, recovering well. Some days are a little tougher than others, but for the most part, I think we can’t hurt it anymore. So, we just keep pushing it and see how it responds.”

Wong noted it will be a matter of pain management with a deep bone bruise as a result of the small fracture.

“I’m more worried about (feeling good) catching than I am the hitting,” Wong said, not giving an estimate of when he could return. “I’m not going to stress myself over that. I just want to make sure I’m able to take care of the baseball (on the catching side).”

Cora milestone approaching

On Friday in Cleveland, Cora is set to manage his 1,000th game for the Red Sox. He’ll become just one of five managers in Red Sox history to achieve that feat. He trails Joe Cronin (2,007), Terry Francona (1,296), Pinky Higgins (1,119) and Bill Carrigan (1,003).

Of the four, only Cronin (.539) and Francona (.574) have a better career winning percentage with Boston than Cora’s .536 mark.

(Photo of Garrett Crochet: Brian Fluharty / Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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