Garrett Crochet Dominant and Confident in Red Sox Playoff Hopes

BOSTON — Alex Cora visited Garrett Crochet on the mound as he approached 100 pitches. Crochet just allowed the Royals to pull within 3-2 with only one out, and nearly gave up a game-tying home run to Salvador Perez that Wilyer Abreu caught against the wall. Now, Randal Grichuk stood on second base as that tying run after a double with only one out. Cora kept Crochet in.

That decision came only days after Cora pushed back Crochet’s last start to stagger it eight days after his last one. Cora deemed it part of a Red Sox plan they’d discussed throughout the season as Boston attempts to manage its pitching staff. Crochet faced inning limits in Chicago, and the Red Sox have tried to allow him to pitch as freely as he wanted to. He received that opportunity on Tuesday night, slowing down with his sweeper to strike out Nick Loftin before dialing back up to 97 miles-per-hour to send Luke Maile back to the dugout. Abreu and Trevor Story pushed through three insurance runs in the seventh to secure a 6-2 Red Sox win, their seventh straight.

Crochet strolled toward the dugout while a Fenway Park crowd that reached its peak early this week saluted him. He reached 7.0 innings for the 10th time this season, the most in MLB, struck out eight Royals and allowed only four hits and two runs after retiring the first 10 Kansas City hitters. The Red Sox, now the best team in the wild card mix, improved to an 81% chance to reach the playoffs. A possibility Crochet sounded sure of after the game.

“It’s a fun atmosphere right now (at Fenway),” he said. “I can only imagine what it’s gonna be in a couple of months, but that’s why we gotta keep working. It feels really good playing here in Boston … it’s been unreal. I feel like our team’s really starting to feed off (the crowd).”

BIG MOMENTS:

• Crochet nearly struck out all three Royals hitters he saw in the third inning, narrowly missing the outside of the plate against John Rave before forcing him to ground out. He froze Jonathan India, the following batter, on another full count by splitting the outside of the plate with a cutter. Crochet struck out six of the first 10 Royals hitters he saw before Bobby Witt Jr. lifted his 3-2 cutter high off the monster in left center field for a triple. Maikel Garcia bounced a grounder high over Alex Bregman’s head at third base to send him home and tie the game, 1-1.
• Jarren Duran gave Boston its first lead with an RBI double in the third inning after Romy Gonzalez tagged up on first base and advanced to second on a David Hamilton fly ball to the triangle.
• Ryan Bergert, in his first Royals start, retired nine straight Red Sox hitters between the fourth and sixth innings, and used only four pitches or fewer in each at bat. Bregman broke that streak with an eight pitch walk, which curiously drew manager Matt Quatraro from the Royals dugout to pull Bergert after 85 efficient pitches. He called on Angel Zerpa to record one out, pitching for the second consecutive night, and Abreu slapped his 1-0 slider off the monster in the most important Sox hit of the night. Story drove in Bregman and Abreu with another two-out hit to break the tie.
• Boston did its work with two outs again in the seventh, ahead 3-2. Hamilton walked against John Schreiber, Duran singled and Bregman walked again to load the bases for Abreu, whose high fly ball barely dropped between second baseman India and right fielder Randal Grichuk. Story scored Abreu to extend the lead to a decisive 6-2 that Greg Weissert and Jordan Hicks closed out.
• Abreu and Story combined to hit 4-8 with 2 RBI in the 3-4 spots after Story won AL Player of the Week.
• Grichuk and Nick Loftin hit hard line drives that tailed away from Hamilton and Abreu in the fifth inning after the Royals tied the game in the fourth. Both Sox defenders secured them as outs, Abreu crashing into the right field wall after the first of two stellar catches. His second saved the game in the seventh after his throw to home plate solidified Monday’s win over Kansas City.
• Roman Anthony missed his second straight game with back tightness, and could sit out a third on Wednesday ahead of Boston’s travel day on Thursday, Alex Cora said. Cora began the day announcing Anthony would return on Wednesday, and later called it a manager’s decision. He was active on Tuesday to play, if necessary, and would remain available on Wednesday regardless. He also announced Crochet would have no more starters skipped or pushed back this season. Marcelo Mayer received a wrist injection to try to avoid surgery and will miss the weekend series in San Diego.
  
• Masataka Yoshida played left field for only the third time over the past two seasons. Duran replaced him there in the seventh inning after Ceddanne Rafaela pinch ran for him in the sixth. Duran nearly caught Grichuk’s double over his shoulder in the seventh there, who represented the tying run before Crochet’s crucial strikeouts to end his start.
• RHP Dustin May will make his Red Sox debut on Wednesday against the Royals in the series finale.