Sep 2, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Garrett Crochet (35) pitches against the Cleveland Guardians during the first inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images Eric Canha-Imagn Images

Red Sox's Alex Cora Has Garrett Crochet Message After Blow-Up Outing

Originally posted on Boston Red Sox on SI
By Jackson Roberts | Last updated Sep 3, 2025 10:00 AM ET

Chances are, Boston Red Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet cost himself a strong bid for a Cy Young Award on Tuesday night. But the Red Sox won, and Crochet might very well accept that trade gladly.

Crochet has meant everything to the Red Sox pitching staff all season, but on Tuesday, the Cleveland Guardians got to him in a major way. Entering the sixth inning, he'd only given up one run on a solo home run by Jhonkensy Noel, but three more home runs from Austin Hedges, David Fry, and Bryan Rocchio added up to six more tallies on the scoreboard.

With that, Crochet exited, having allowed seven earned runs on nine hits through six innings. His season ERA is up to 2.67, nearly a half-run higher than Cy Young favorite Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers. But the Red Sox almost seemed to use his blow-up inning as a rallying cry.

Alex Cora sounds off on Red Sox "picking up" Crochet

The Red Sox got two runs in the bottom of the sixth on a Ceddanne Rafaela home run, then seized control with four in the eighth, including an Alex Bregman go-ahead single, Jarren Duran RBI double, and Trevor Story two-run double.

Alex Cora's postgame comments sent a fairly simple message to Crochet: You've had our back all season, so it's about time we have yours.

"Yeah, the big boy has picked us up the whole season, and we picked him up today,” said Cora, per Ian Browne of MLB.com. “That's what winning teams do. He had a bad inning there and the guys kept battling.”

Crochet, who is now more than 30 innings above his previous career-high, was pitching on four days' rest for the second start in a row. Five days has pretty much become the norm across the majors, so it's understandable that the fatigue might be starting to catch up with the 26-year-old.

At the same time, the Red Sox will still need Crochet to lock in come playoff time. Thankfully, the offense bailed him out on Tuesday, but there will likely come another time when he needs to put the team on his back, especially in October.

This article first appeared on Boston Red Sox on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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