What Garrett Crochet Trying To ‘Capitalize On’ After Red Sox Debut

Garrett Crochet was satisfied with his Red Sox debut, but still had a key improvement front of mind.

“It was nice,” Crochet told NESN’s Tom Caron and Lou Merloni on the broadcast Sunday. “It was nice getting out there, getting some real game action. A lot to work on, but some good takeaways.”

Crochet exited with Boston leading 1-0 before an eventual 8-7 loss against the Toronto Blue Jays at JetBlue Park.

Crochet threw 17 of his 27 pitches for strikes with four strikeouts, three of which came in the first inning. He allowed three hits with one walk and was pulled with two outs in the second inning.

Crochet revealed one of the biggest things he’s worked on since joining the Red Sox is getting ahead in the count. He threw first-pitch strikes to five of the eight batters he faced including all four in the second inning.

“It’s keeping it as simple as first-pitch strikes, really just making sure I put myself in great counts,” Crochet said on NESN. “When looking at my splits all the years in the major leagues, the 0-1 versus 1-0 is very drastic and that’s really the main thing I’m trying to capitalize on right now.”

Crochet said it’s been an easy transition to the Red Sox, and spoke highly about the staff under pitching coach Andrew Bailey.

“It feels strong. A lot of experience,” Crochet said. “You just mentioned there’s a couple All-Stars in there so it’s really cool to pick everybody’s brain, guys who have thrown more innings than me, how they carry themselves through the course of a full season.”

Crochet’s pitch mix against the Blue Jays featured his powerful fastball and off-speed cutter and sweeper.

“Really focusing a lot on what I’m doing, working on some new pitches and kind of seeing what counts they play in,” Crochet said. “But for the most part, it’s keeping as simple as throwing strikes, getting ahead with first-pitch strikes and that sort of thing.”

Crochet is scheduled to start against the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday afternoon.