Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Kutter Crawford had never thrown more than 5 1/3 innings during an outing in the big leagues.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora decided to push the limits on how much the right-hander could give the team Thursday night against the Tampa Bay Rays.
After Crawford fired six scoreless innings, Cora sent the 26-year-old back out for the seventh, in which he promptly allowed a run after two doubles sandwiched around a single. Crawford’s night was done after that, but the Rays ended up scoring five times in the frame to rally for a 5-4 win and sweep the Red Sox at Tropicana Field.
Following the loss, Cora explained why he stuck with Crawford to begin the seventh inning.
“Obviously, with where we were bullpen-wise, we were really limited wherever and he was throwing the ball well,” Cora said, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “So, we rolled the dice with him. It was kind of like Kutter, (John) Schreiber, Tanner (Houck), but it just didn’t happen.”
Cora didn’t second-guess his decision much, as he felt he had things lined up with Schreiber and Houck before things came crashing down.
“In that situation, he was throwing the ball well,” Cora said. “It just happened fast. Knowing where we’re going tomorrow, we we’re thinking about being aggressive with Schreiber and Tanner, but we didn’t get to Tanner.”
The seventh inning ended up putting a black cloud over another terrific start from Crawford. He tossed six-plus innings and was charged with three earned runs while yielding six hits and no walks to go along with six strikeouts.
