Red Sox Ace Joins Historic Company With Latest Road Masterpiece
The Boston Red Sox have been much better at home than on the road this year, but not Garrett Crochet.
Crochet’s one of the few Red Sox players who’s performed better away from Fenway Park, going 11-2 with a 2.29 ERA on the road versus 4-3 with a 2.92 ERA at home.
Boston’s ace continued that trend on Monday night, dominating the Athletics over seven shutout innings in Sacramento. He yielded just three hits and no walks while racking up 10 strikeouts, throwing 70 of his 101 pitches for strikes and pitching the Red Sox to a 7-0 victory in the series opener.
Crochet joined some impressive company with his latest gem. It was his fifth road start this year with at least 10 strikeouts and no more than one run allowed, tying for the third-most such starts by a left-handed pitcher in a season in MLB history.
The only southpaws with more starts like that in a season were Sandy Koufax in 1966 (six) and Chris Sale in 2017 (eight). Crochet is also tied for third-most among Boston pitchers with 1999 Pedro Martinez, trailing only 2000 Pedro Martinez (six) and 2017 Sale.
The masterclass was a much-needed rebound performance for the two-time All-Star, who suffered his worst start of the season during his most recent outing by allowing seven runs on nine hits (including four homers) against the Cleveland Guardians at Fenway Park. He improved to 15-5 with a 2.57 ERA, 5.5 WAR and 228 strikeouts in 185 1/3 innings this year, leading MLB in the latter two categories.
Crochet’s next outing will likely come at home against the New York Yankees this weekend, when he’ll face them for the fourth and final time during the regular season. He’s 2-0 with a 2.95 ERA, a 0.84 WHIP and 27 strikeouts in his previous three starts against them.