![\"Boston](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AP26098052897408.jpg\")
Boston Red Sox pitcher Aroldis Chapman is congratulated after a victory against the Milwaukee Brewers in a baseball game Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)\nStory heating up<\/p>\n
After too many short, run-filled starts from Boston Red Sox starting pitchers, owners of the worst record in Major League Baseball entering Tuesday night, they badly needed Garrett Crochet in top form against the Milwaukee Brewers.<\/p>\n
They got their wish. And when all was said and done, the Red Sox were 3-8 on the season, having won 3-2.<\/p>\n
Crochet went 6 1\/3 innings and held the Brewers to two earned runs on five hits, two walks and seven strikeouts. He became the first Red Sox starter to record an out in the fifth inning since Sonny Gray went six in Friday\u2019s home opener.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd more,\u201d manager Alex Cora said when asked if he got exactly what he needed from Crochet.<\/p>\n
The Brewers had their own ace to play, though, and the Boston bats looked powerless against Jacob Misiorowski in the early innings.<\/p>\n
As the temperatures dipped into the 30s (with \u201cfeels like\u201d numbers in the 20s), the only source of heat in the ballpark was the pitchers mound, where Crochet and Misiorowski\u2019s duel stretched into the sixth.<\/p>\n
The flame-thrower known as \u201cThe Miz\u201d opened with five consecutive strikeouts and reached double-digits for the fourth time in his career. His four-seam fastball averaged 98.8 mph and touched 100-plus mph 21 times. He faced the minimum until two outs in the fourth (Isiah Kiner-Falefa grounded into an inning-ending double play to erase Ceddanne Rafaela\u2019s leadoff walk in the third).<\/p>\n
\u201cElite, elite stuff,\u201d Cora said of the opposing starter. \u201cAnd with the conditions, it felt like we needed to pitch with him the whole night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aside from 1-2-3 first and fifth innings, Crochet wove in and out of light traffic throughout his start. Things looked particularly dicey in the bottom of the fourth. Crochet issued a walk to Gary S\u00e1nchez and a fielder\u2019s choice and missed-catch error on second baseman Marcelo Mayer (from shortstop Trevor Story) ensured both S\u00e1nchez and batter Joey Ortiz were safe. Story turned a successful inning-ending double play on the next batter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this year we\u2019ve had three shutdown innings,\u201d Crochet said of the Red Sox rotation. \u201cAnd that\u2019s just unacceptable from a pitching standpoint. We know the caliber of arms that we\u2019ve got, we\u2019ve just got to get back to being offensive with our pitching.\u201d<\/p>\n
Misiorowski blinked first. The Brewers starter issued three consecutive one-out walks to load the bases in the bottom of the sixth before manager Pat Murphy went to his bullpen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn games like that, with aces, with elite stuff, when the window opens, you have to take advantage,\u201d Cora said.<\/p>\n
For the third game in a row, the Red Sox scored first, took a lead of at least three runs, then felt their hope turn into anxiety as their starter loaded the bases in the following frame. Story\u2019s two-run double to left field broke the scoreless tie and Caleb Durbin\u2019s pinch-hit RBI-groundout plated another run before Brewers reliever DL Hall escaped further damage with a Rafaela groundout.<\/p>\n
The Red Sox planned to let Crochet throw between 100 and 105 pitches, and his pitch count was at 89 after the sixth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe felt comfortable pushing him in the seventh,\u201d Cora said.<\/p>\n
Crochet gave up a leadoff single to shortstop Ortiz, a one-out single to right fielder Sal Frelick and walked centerfielder Blake Perkins to load the bases in the top of the seventh. But it was a familiar face who finally knocked the Sox starter out: David Hamilton, hit by Crochet\u2019s 107th and final pitch of the night to get the Brewers on the board.<\/p>\n
Zack Kelly managed to finish the seventh with the lead intact, though it shrank to one. Durbin snagged Christian Yelich\u2019s pinch-hit line-drive to left, but he slipped briefly before recovering and throwing to Kiner-Falefa at second. Kiner-Falefa\u2019s subsequent throw to first wasn\u2019t in time to complete a double play and Frelick scored.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaleb saved the game with that play,\u201d Cora said.<\/p>\n
\u201cKelly did one hell of a job,\u201d Crochet said.<\/p>\n
Garrett Whitlock set the Brewers down in order in the eighth, and Aroldis Chapman did the same in the ninth.<\/p>\n
For the first time this year, a one-run lead held. The Red Sox, who struck out 11 times and only tallied three hits, did just enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that it definitely felt like we needed to stop the bleeding,\u201d Crochet said.<\/p>\n
Boston Red Sox pitcher Aroldis Chapman is congratulated after a victory against the Milwaukee Brewers in a baseball game Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)
\nStory heating up<\/p>\n
Story has multiple RBI in back-to-back games and has hit safely in three straight, after an 0 for 16 stretch.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt happens quick with him,\u201d Cora said of the veteran shortstop heating up at the plate over the last two games after a cold start to the season. \u201cLast year we saw how he turned it around after the Milwaukee series. He took off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Story entered the team\u2019s late-May 2025 series in Milwaukee hitting .222 with a .595 OPS over his first 50 games. He hit .285 with a .818 OPS in his remaining 106 regular-season games.<\/p>\n
Slaten dealing with soreness<\/p>\n
Justin Slaten wasn\u2019t available to pitch Tuesday night. The righty reliever is dealing with soreness in the oblique area on his right side.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to call it oblique (soreness),\u201d Cora said. \u201cIt\u2019s on the right side. So we\u2019ll see how he feels tomorrow and then we\u2019ll go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After too many short, run-filled starts from Boston Red Sox starting pitchers, owners of the worst record in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2401],"tags":[5,48,136,922,11714,843,59,4280,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-669462","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-brewers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston-red-sox","10":"tag-brewers","11":"tag-garrett-crochet","12":"tag-jacob-misiorowski","13":"tag-milwaukee","14":"tag-milwaukee-brewers","15":"tag-milwaukeebrewers","16":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116366854147019309","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669462","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=669462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}