TORONTO — Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet said he’s “not at all satisfied” after making his final regular season start Wednesday.
“We still got a lot of games that we intend on playing, and I don’t intend on that being my last one,” Crochet said.
The 26-year-old lefty tossed eight scoreless innings in the Red Sox’ 7-1 victory over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Boston’s magic number to clinch a postseason spot is down to two, meaning any combination of Red Sox wins and Astros losses totaling two will secure their playoff berth.
Crochet is lined up to pitch Game 1 of the AL Wild Card series next Tuesday.
“He did his job and now the rest of us have to finish it,” Cora said. “Hopefully he can pitch Game 1, whenever it is.”
Crochet allowed just three hits and no walks while striking out six. He reached the 200-inning mark, becoming the first Red Sox pitcher to accomplish the feat since Eduardo Rodriguez threw 203 ⅓ innings in 2019.
It marked the fourth time this season Crochet has pitched at least eight innings in a start and the 14th time he has hurled at least seven innings.
“That’s the reason he’s here: We needed an ace, we got an ace, we extended him,” manager Alex Cora said. “And every five days it feels like it’s win day. And he did an amazing job today. The guys came out swinging, shutdown inning right after that and he set the tempo from the mound.”
Crochet leads the majors in innings pitched (205 ⅓), pulling ahead of Giants’ Logan Webb (201 ⅔ innings). Crochet and Webb are the only two major league pitchers who have reached 200 innings so far in 2025.
“It was kind of an abstract goal,” Crochet said. “I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to get there, but just tried to be as consistent as possible and trust in my teammates. Tonight there were some great defensive plays that helped me get to that benchmark. And taking the lead early, too, definitely helped with that.”
The Red Sox scored three runs in the top of the first inning off future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer before Crochet even took the mound.
Crochet finished the regular season 18-5 with a 2.59 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and an MLB-leading 255 strikeouts in 32 starts.
Asked if there’s any part of the body of work he’s most proud of, Crochet replied, “No, the next one, man. That’s what I’m looking forward to right now. There will be time to be happy about this when the offseason hits, but we intend on that being a month away.”
Crochet wasn’t pleased with his fastball and cutter in his previous start. Those pitches were more effective Wednesday. The lefty topped out at 99.1 mph. His 36 four-seam fastballs averaged 97.2 mph, up from his 96.4 mph season average, per Baseball Savant.
“Just being a little bit more aggressive,” Crochet said. “I kind of sworn off touching the slope in September, but I touched it the other day just because I kind of wanted to feel something and sharpen up before this big series. So for me, that was really the main takeaway. (Greg) Weissert’s my catch partner. And he was there watching it and kind of picked up on it early. And I kind of started chasing that cue and ran with it.”
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