How Red Sox Ace Garrett Crochet Reacted To Taking Liner Off Face

Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Garrett Crochet had quite the scare in Sunday’s loss to the Minnesota Twins at Fenway Park.

Crochet took a liner off the nose to begin the top of the fourth inning when Twins star Carlos Correa hit a hot shot back up the middle, which Kristian Campbell fielded for a groundout.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora and a member of the team’s training staff quickly popped out of the dugout to check on Crochet. He dealt with a little bit of blood and a few tears, but Crochet, who stayed in the game, was lucky enough to escape the situation without suffering a major injury.

“It barely grazed me, honestly,” Crochet told reporters, per MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. “Just more shaken up by the initial impact than anything. I immediately went to touch my nose to see if it felt normal. It was numb at first, just from the initial impact. But it was fine.”

Crochet struck out the next batter he faced before surrendering a single and recording another groundout to get out of the inning. But the fifth inning was more laborious for the 6-foot-6, 245-pound lefty as he issued his only two walks of the game to begin the frame.

Those runners didn’t come around to score — the only run Crochet allowed came on his first pitch when Byron Buxton homered — but the free passes still did damage. Crochet threw 25 of his 89 pitches in the stanza and Cora decided that was it for the ace following the inning.

Crochet, who also dealt with diminished velocity, finished the outing by allowing four hits and one run with those two walks and six strikeouts in five innings.

“The walks put him in a bad spot,” Cora told reporters, per Cotillo. “He talked about it. He didn’t realize the pitch count was up there. He was efficient early on, then he had to work hard to get the outs in the fifth.”