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Alex Cora Reveals Hilarious Red Sox Moment With Braves' Chris Sale During Garrett Crochet's Outing

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Jon Conahan | Last updated Jun 2, 2025 1:40 PM ET

There haven't been many bright spots for the Boston Red Sox throughout the 2025 campaign.

However, left-hander Garrett Crochet has been excellent to start the year, and that continued for Boston on Sunday, when he threw 7.0 innings of one earned run baseball, striking out 12 in an outing where he threw 112 pitches.

And according to skipper Alex Cora, this brought back some memories, but ones that were different.

According to Cora, former Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale looked at him across the dugouts, staring at him in disbelief that he was allowing Crochet to go back out on the bump.

“Chris (Sale) was looking at me on the other side,” said Cora, per MassLive. “He was like, ‘Woah, that’s a new one.’ And we needed that.”

Crochet told reporters after the game that he was hopeful that Cora would allow him to throw to hitters past Michael Harris, which happened.

Ultimately, it seemed to be the right decision for a Red Sox team that needed this win badly.

Winning a series in Atlanta should help them build some confidence, and Crochet and Cora understand that.

“He told me, ‘Let’s keep going,’” Crochet said. “I was fired up. I was just hoping it wasn’t for Harris only. If you’re going to send me back out, let me go to work, and he did.”

When the Red Sox landed Crochet during the offseason, there were questions about how he'd throw.

While he was excellent a year ago, there were worries that he might get injured as a full-time starter in his second season doing so.

However, the left-hander has been incredible, posting a 1.98 ERA and already striking out 101 hitters in 82.0 innings.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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