Red Sox Notes: Kutter Crawford’s ‘Rewarding’ Start Uplifted Boston Vs. Cubs

The Boston Red Sox needed a boost in order to respond and secure a series win over the Chicago Cubs and that’s exactly what they got on Sunday at Wrigley Field.

Red Sox right-hander Kutter Crawford rose to the occasion, battling a high pitch count, which was the only blemish — if you’d even call it that — of his outing during Boston’s 11-5 blowout victory against the Cubs. In fact, Crawford set a new career-high milestone in the process of leading the team in a time when they were in dire need of some starter efficiency.

Crawford delivered six strong innings, holding Chicago scoreless while allowing just one base hit (a single), four walks and striking out a career-best nine hitters, in order to get Boston right back on track after Saturday night’s loss.

“It feels great and it definitely helps when the offense gives you a lead like that,” Crawford told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Takes a lot of weight off your shoulders and at that point, my job to do is just to throw strikes. But being able to grind through that beginning half and just still competing and not giving into certain situations, is definitely rewarding.”

The strong performance from Crawford came at an especially timely manner too.

After James Paxton’s rough start (three innings, six earned runs) in Game 2 of the series, Red Sox manager Alex Cora needed to defer to the bullpen early and utilize four relief arms. That’s not ideal or helpful with Boston already missing the services of four starting pitchers on the injured list — Chris Sale, Garrett Whitlock, Tanner Houck and Corey Kluber.

“Obviously where we’re at right now, it’s huge,” Cora said, per NESN. “We cannot have — it’s not fair for them — we cannot have too many short outings, right? They gotta go five and six (innings). So, for him to bounce back. The way he threw the ball towards the end, we felt like there was a few things going on and the way he threw the ball today was solid and that’s what we expect.”

Crawford isn’t even a full season removed from his rookie year in 2022 with Boston, but Cora is already taking notice of the development on full display from the 27-year-old.

“He’s grown so much from the kid that last year we wanted him to pitch up in the zone and throw breaking balls as a reliever to go to Seattle last year and throw 50 percent strikes,” Cora explained. “It was 50-50 and he went deep into the game and little by little, he keeps learning. I think last year was a great learning experience for him. … And you can see the results.”

Here are more notes from Sunday’s Red Sox-Cubs game:

— Boston holds the best record in Major League Baseball since June 30 (10-2).

— Masataka Yoshida stole the show at the plate, going 3-for-5, including a grand slam –coming up just a double shy of the cycle — with six RBIs. With his ninth multi-hit game in the last 10 played, Yoshida remains the American League leader in mult-hit performances with 36 total this season.

“It was good. We’ve been saying all along he’s a good hitter,” Cora said.

— Justin Turner went 1-for-3 with a single, extending his hitting streak to 12 consecutive games while going 19-for-45 through that stretch. Turner is also just one of six players in the AL to record 100 base hits, tied with Yoshida and Nathaniel Lowe (Texas Rangers) for fourth place in the hits lead.

The 38-year-old veteran has batted .422 in his last 12 games with seven extra-base hits, 15 RBIs and a 1.173 OPS.

— Cora surpassed former Red Sox manager Don Zimmer on the all-time wins leaderboard, sliding into eighth place with 412, now shy of beating out Jimmy Williams (414) and John Farrell (432).

— The Red Sox will next travel to Oakland to open up a three-game set with the Athletics, starting on Monday night. First pitch from the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum is set for 9:40 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, along with a full hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN.