BOSTON — After being cuffed around for five runs on seven hits in just four innings in his last start, Garrett Crochet was particularly motivated to turn things around Sunday.
“Definitely,” agreed Crochet. “I try to leave it in the past as much as I can. That’s kind of a trait that I’ve always had. I don’t forget that easily. In this game, it’s good to have a short memory. But I felt like it’s beneficial in my case to remember what happened and what went wrong and try and go in the opposite direction as much as possible.”
Crochet did his job Sunday. Unfortunately for the Red Sox, the team’s relievers didn’t do theirs.
Crochet limited the Miami Marlins to just one run over seven innings while striking out eight. It marked the eighth time this year that he had pitched at least seven innings while allowing one or no runs. But Garrett Whitlock allowed one in the eighth and in the ninth, with the Sox clinging to a one-run lead, Greg Weissert and Steven Matz combined to yield three, resulting in a no-decision for Crochet and a painful 5-3 loss for the Sox.
The blown lead in the ninth cost Crochet what should have been his 14th win of the season and the Red Sox a sweep of the weekend series. Instead of gaining ground on Toronto, which lost, the Red Sox remained five games back in the AL East race.
Crochet deserved a better fate. The one run he allowed came on a solo homer from Eric Wagaman in the third. Otherwise, he allowed just two more hits — both singles. Through five innings, the Marlins had just three baserunners.Mi
Miami made him work a bit harder in the sixth and seventh, when he successfully pitched around a a leadoff single and a one-out hit batsman in the sixth and a leadoff walk and subsequent wild pitch in the seventh.
“He made pitches when he had to,” said manager Alex Cora. “He gave us a chance to win.”
Those were some high stress innings for the Sox ace, but he didn’t break. And while he couldn’t help ruminate over one that away, Crochet wasn’t about to wallow in the loss.
“I think as long as we keep stacking series wins and moving in the right direction,” said Crochet, “it’s hard to harp on a loss when we just won the series. Just gotta tip your cap and move on to the next series.”
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