What’s Wrong With Garrett Crochet? Red Sox Ace Explains Clunker

Cue Bob Lobel and his panic button because Boston Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet looked quite mortal Tuesday against the Cleveland Guardians.

The left-hander gave up a season-high seven earned runs in six innings of work in the Red Sox’s 11-7 win at Fenway Park.

Perhaps most alarming are the four home runs Crochet gave up, including three in the sixth inning. The four home runs equals the amount of long balls the southpaw surrendered in his five August starts.

But the 26-year-old downplayed his problems after the game.

“I’ve given up my fair share of solos this year, last year, years prior to that,” Crochet said of the home runs, according to The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey. “It kind of is what it is. For me, it’s limiting the multiple-run homers, which obviously I didn’t do tonight. I think that’s why ultimately the start collapsed on itself.”

Crochet leads the American League with 178 and one-third innings pitched this season, which is a career high. So is the Red Sox workhorse running out of gas down the stretch?

According to McCaffrey, Crochet’s four-seam fastball averaged 96.6 mph Tuesday, a touch above his season average (96.3 mph).

“I feel really good,” Crochet said, per McCaffrey. “Velocity, not that it tells the whole story, but it tells a lot of it, it’s in a really good spot. Even my teammates are asking me, like, ‘Hey, how are you feeling?’ But I truly do feel really good. Taking care of my body in between starts and just doing everything I can to be prepared to help this team out down the stretch.”

For his part, Red Sox manager Alex Cora isn’t worried about his All-Star ace.

“The big boy has picked us up the whole season, and we picked him up today,” Cora said, according to McCaffrey. “That’s what winning teams do. He had a bad inning there, and the guys kept battling.”

Crochet collected four strikeouts Tuesday, boosting his MLB-leading total to 218. But the lefty saw his ERA rise to 2.67 this season, perhaps dampening his chances of winning the AL Cy Young Award, with reigning winner and Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal poised as Crochet’s main competition.

Boston is slated to send Crochet back to the mound Monday when the Red Sox open a three-game series with the Athletics in Sacramento, Calif.