Garrett Crochet didn\u2019t complete Friday\u2019s dominant start in storybook fashion.<\/p>\n
Crochet tossed eight scoreless innings against the New York Yankees, notching three of his seven strikeouts against Aaron Judge. So with the reigning American League MVP due up in the ninth inning, Red Sox manager Alex Cora gave Crochet a chance to pitch his first career complete game.<\/p>\n
Judge instead hit a home run over the Green Monster to tie the game at 1-1. While Crochet didn\u2019t finish his gem, the Red Sox still secured a 2-1 victory in extra innings.<\/p>\n
Following the dramatic win, Cora discussed his decision to keep Crochet in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat wasn\u2019t fun, but our guy was throwing great,\u201d Cora told reporters, per ESPN<\/a>. \u201cHe was efficient toward the end. We gave him a shot. It didn\u2019t work out. That\u2019s why [Judge] is who he is. One of the best in world, and he got one pitch down and he hit it out of the ballpark. You tip your hat.\u201d<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n Fans at Fenway Park seemed to appreciate Cora sticking with his ace, as they gave the 25-year-old a standing ovation when he approached the mound for the ninth.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cI could tell the fans wanted me out there,\u201d Crochet said. \u201cI already wanted to be out there pretty bad. But it made it mean a little bit more. It made me grab a little bit more in that inning. I wish I could have finished it out.\u201d<\/p>\n Crochet struck out Judge in six consecutive encounters before the superstar outfielder deposited his 26th home run of the season. Judge handled a 99-mph heater that had flummoxed him throughout Friday\u2019s pitching duel.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to live and die with my best pitch,\u201d Crochet said. \u201cWhether it be pitch selection or execution, tough way to end it. But overall, I felt really good tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n Cora removed him during the ninth, but Crochet\u2019s 8 1\/3 innings pitched still represented a career high for the converted reliever. The southpaw bolstered his All-Star and AL Cy Young Award cases by improving his ERA to 2.24 with an MLB-leading 117 strikeouts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Garrett Crochet didn\u2019t complete Friday\u2019s dominant start in storybook fashion. Crochet tossed eight scoreless innings against the New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[858,5,141,48,2542,922,4,89,2543],"class_list":{"0":"post-103510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-alex-cora","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-boston","11":"tag-boston-red-sox","12":"tag-bostonredsox","13":"tag-garrett-crochet","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-red-sox","16":"tag-redsox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114682496776975172","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}