How Alex Cora ‘Fired Up’ Garrett Crochet In Red Sox Ace’s Latest Gem

Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet and Alex Cora’s latest in-game chat produced different results than one of their more recent discussions about the pitcher’s workload.

Boston let the left-hander run wild Sunday, as Crochet turned in the best outing of his young Red Sox career. Outside of a first-inning home run, Crochet gave Atlanta nothing, throwing a career-high 112 pitches on his way to striking out a season-high 12 Braves in a badly needed 3-1 series-clinching win.

The Red Sox have been careful at times this season with Crochet, letting the numbers and medical data dictate how they’d use him. Boston has been strict with that, most notably with Cora pulling Crochet after just 85 pitches two starts ago. On Sunday, though, the governor was off, and Crochet certainly appreciated being allowed to go back out for the seventh inning, despite being at 99 pitches.

“(Cora) told me, ‘Let’s keep going,’ and I was fired up,” Crochet told reporters after the game, per MLB.com. “I was just hoping it wasn’t for (the first batter) only. It’s like, ‘If you’re gonna send me back out, let me go to work.’ And he did. And a lot of props to AC for having trust in me there.”

Crochet struck out the side in the seventh inning, justifying his manager’s confidence in him.

Despite all the recent talk about his workload, no pitcher has been more of a workhorse than him this spring. Crochet leads the majors in starts (13), innings pitched (82) and batters faced (327). Perhaps unsurprisingly, he also leads the majors with 101 strikeouts. His 5-4 record is a reflection of poor run support more than anything else. Crochet’s 1.98 ERA is nearly an entire run below his career mark, and his 2.4 wins above replacement trails only reigning Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal and upstart Royals pitcher Kris Bubic among qualified starters.