Red Sox Notes: Chris Sale Bests Garrett Crochet In Marquee Duel
BOSTON — The Red Sox crossover of Garrett Crochet and Chris Sale lived up to the hype.
Unfortunately for Boston, its former ace came out with the upper hand in a 4-2 win for the Atlanta Braves.
The two aces each tossed seven innings with eight strikeouts apiece. The only runs against them came on solo home runs from Atlanta’s Matt Olson, Sean Murphy, and Boston’s Rob Refsnyder. The Braves scored twice in the ninth against the Red Sox bullpen and made the difference there.
“Both of them were great,” Alex Cora said. “Overall, amazing. Stuff was good. Strike throwing was excellent. The way he competed was great.”
In his two starts against the Red Sox since the December 2023 trade to the Braves, Sale is 2-0 and allowed just one earned run in those starts with 18 strikeouts in 13 innings of work. Cora discussed in the past that frontline starters usually find their best velocity in May. Sale and Crochet backed that up Friday night.
“Just a good pitcher, man,” Cora said. “He’s really good. The fastball today. It’s not Cinco De Mayo, it’s May (16). They were throwing really hard today. Slider was really good. Backdoor for a strike. Down under from chases. He’s not throwing many changeups. I think the pitch of the day was the fastball low and in to Alex (Bregman). He doesn’t usually go to that spot, and he aced that pitch. Just got to tip your hat in that situation.”
“He’s one of the best pitchers in the game,” Bregman said. “Cy Young winner. His fastball was exploding. Really good sliders as well. We just didn’t do enough offensively.”
“He had a lot of things working,” Refsnyder said. “He was locating his fastball well. All four quadrants. Obviously, his slider, you guys know Chris’s slider. It was working.”
The loss doesn’t go down as a poor one for Crochet. He attacked hitters and executed at a high level to further grow his confidence at the top of the Red Sox rotation.
“Really good outing,” Crochet said. “Came down to two pitches. Fairly executed. Just gotta live with it. It’s baseball.”
Crochet completed seven innings and did so with a 98 MPH fastball to strand the bases loaded for the second straight start.
“It’s cool, nothing really out of the ordinary,” Crochet added. “Just pitching, just doing my job.”
The marquee pitching matchup made for an exciting duel and one that the Red Sox starter certainly wanted to embrace.
“From my side, I know that I gotta have my best stuff that day,” Crochet said. “If I don’t, I gotta make something work. Luckily, besides the two homers. I felt like I had my best stuff all night long and executed.”
Here are more notes from Friday’s Braves-Red Sox game:
— The Red Sox fell to 22-24 and extended the losing streak to four games.
— Liam Hendriks, Brennan Bernardino and Nick Burdi combined to throw just 19 of 44 pitches in the ninth inning for strikes. The Braves walked five times in the frame.
— Boston gave Kristian Campbell reps at first base before the game as an introduction to the position. The team continues to seek a replacement after Triston Casas’ season-ending injury.
— The Red Sox played their first game in their “Fenway Green” City Connect jerseys. Check them out here.
— The Red Sox and Braves continue their three-game series Saturday night at Fenway Park. First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m. ET. You can catch the game on FOX.