Red Sox Make Major Garrett Crochet Announcement Amid Cy Young Push

The Boston Red Sox were so hot, it was almost possible to forget they were doing it without Garrett Crochet.

No, Crochet isn't injured. Far from it, as Tuesday night's brilliant start against the Kansas City Royals showed. But manager Alex Cora wound up giving him eight days off between starts, as he'd last taken the ball on Jul. 26 against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Crochet looked rejuvenated with the extra rest, regularly hitting 98 miles per hour with his fastball and pitching a comfortable seven innings with two earned runs and eight strikeouts. After the ace picked up his 13th win of the year, Cora had some important information to share regarding his workload moving forward.

Although he's now throwing more innings in a season than ever before, Crochet appears to be officially off the leash.

“I think this is the last time we’re going to skip a start from now on,” said Cora, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive. “Obviously, if he stays healthy. From now on, we’ll use the off days to our advantage.

“This is something we talked about before the All-Star Game. Overall, we’ve stayed very disciplined, including himself, because it’s hard, right? He wants to pitch, he wants to contribute. For everybody now, we’re good. (We can) shake hands: this is what we’re going to do. Now, we’re gonna let him go.”

Crochet's 148 1/3 innings this season have now surpassed the career-high mark of 146 he set with the Chicago White Sox last season, and he's also leading the majors in that category. He also re-took the major league lead in strikeouts with 183, only one more than fellow Cy Young Award hopefuls Tarik Skubal and Zack Wheeler.

What matters the most by far, though, is the winning. Crochet is now 9-0 in his last 11 starts, and the only one of those starts the team lost was a game in which he threw seven scoreless innings. There's no such thing as a guarantee in baseball, but Crochet taking the mound has become the next best thing for the Red Sox.

The 26-year-old lefty has shown no sign of slowing down, and Cora and the organization are fully prepared to put their faith in him as he enters uncharted territory.