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Red Sox’ Garrett Crochet was not close to his best, but still plenty good enough
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- Red Sox’ Garrett Crochet was not close to his best, but still plenty good enough
BOSTON — From the early innings Saturday, it was evident that the we would not be watching prime Garrett Crochet .
Two walks in the first five innings was proof of that, and so was his climbing pitch count as he labored through both the second inning (stranding two) and the fifth (two more).
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But even for what might be classified as an "off" outing for the Red Sox ace, he still managed to toss six shutout innings in what turned out to be a 4-3 win in 10 innings over the Chicago White Sox .
"Bad counts," shrugged Crochet. "I need to get back to throwing through the target instead of to the target. That's probably my third time saying that this year, so it sucks that I haven't made that adjustment yet. It's easy for me to find the adjustment in my tempo in mid-week bullpens; when the game happens, things speed up a little bit.
"But I feel like I was able to find it again in the sixth and get a shutdown inning, which was huge."
Then again, when Crochet is able to blank an opponent for six innings while feeling out of sorts with his mechanics is a positive sign.
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"It feels good, but I feel like I'm getting away with murder. It's only a matter of time before I get caught," he said. "I feel like the way that I'm throwing the ball isn't up to my (standard). It's only a matter of time before I get burned and I'd like to avoid that.
"This is not the standard that I hold myself to. I expect to have my best stuff every time out. That was obviously not the case, but you can dream and you can work toward perfection even if you'll never reach it. That's kind of what we do as pitchers and baseball players in general."
This was not the same Crochet who delivered 7.1 innings of no-hit ball before losing his no-hitter bid last Sunday against these same White Sox.
But given the success he enjoyed last weekend, he didn't feel the need to alter his approach much when he faced them for the second time in six days.
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"Typically, maybe I would (make adjustments)," he said. "But 7.1 with one hit, I'm going to stick to the same thing. I gave up some more hits this time doing the same approach, but overall I felt like I was limiting damage and barrels and that's all I really pitch to."
Crochet was at 85 pitches after five innings and had an efficient sixth that cost him just 11 pitches. He had hoped to get another inning out of his day's work.
"I think I said in the spring: last year six innings was the goal; this year it's the floor," he said. "I want to be going seven every time out, similar to my last outing. It's my job as a starter. It's the bullpen's job as well to eat innings, but I'd rather not make them have to eat three innings, or go into extras like this.
"That leads to the team digging a hole, and with the role that I'm trying to carry on this team, I need to be someone that's more efficient and going deeper into games."
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