For the third straight game, the Red Sox jumped out to a lead of at least three runs and then immediately began to give it up. But this time, there were two key differences that allowed them to hold on and escape with a victory.
First, Garrett Crochet started the game throwing six scoreless frames, so when he struggled in the seventh, he was much closer to the high-leverage relievers who were able to push the lead to the finish line.
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After the game, Crochet even talked about how part of his goal as a starter is always to go deeper than the other starter, and tonight he not only did that, but it was the key to the whole thing, as the bridge to Whitlock and Chapman was (barely) short enough to be completed without completely collapsing.
I say this because the second key difference for the Sox tonight is that they got some good bullpen work from an unexpected place. That happened when Zack Kelly came into a 3-1 game with the bases loaded and only one out and managed to beat both guys he faced despite trailing each of them 2-0.
Here’s his final pitch to escape trouble with a ground ball:
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Now, as some of you may know, I’m not the biggest fan of Zack Kelly. It’s got great raw material, but the inconsistency from one outing to the next and the tendency to mentally melt down when faced with adversity always leaves me nervous. As far as tonight goes, the good news is that Zack Kelly came out on top. The bad news is that that means we’ll probably have a lot more Zack Kelly in high-leverage places, and it’s only a matter of time before the baseball gods come to collect that debt.
Offensively, the Red Sox managed just three hits in the entire game, but they also managed three runs in a single inning when Jacob Misiorowski broke down in the sixth and walked with the bases loaded. It was the classic dominant outing of a starter running out of gas, and because it happened one inning before Crochet broke down, it allowed Trevor Story to have the bases loaded at bat against a middle reliever in DL Hall. The result was an extremely timely lone extra-base hit of the night for the Sox and the only hit against a left-handed pitcher for Story so far this season.
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Studs
We will be giving out five of these tonight as it was a much needed win.
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Garrett Crochet: Obvious first choice! 6.1 innings of work, he allowed just two runs and, although he stumbled in the seventh, kept the Brewers off the board long enough to outlast Misiorowski.
Garrett Whitlock: Strong recovery start after losing the winning streak last night. He also had to go through the heart of the Brewers’ order in his scoreless inning.
Zack Kelly: Credit to whom credit is due. The Sox probably won’t win this game if he throws a missile into the hole somewhere.
Trevor’s Story: He had by far the biggest hit of the night, and his defense also improved as the game went on.
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Caleb Durbin: It’s very, very strange to give an out to a guy who was 0-1 as a pinch hitter, but do you know why he’s here? Situational baseball! Durbin came to the plate with runners on second and third and one out after Trevor Story’s two-run double, and you know what he did? He put the ball in play and drove in the winning run.
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This isn’t a sexy play, but tonight, that run proved to be the difference-maker, and it was much better than watching a guy with less than elite power hit the fences.
three rags
Marcelo Mayer: 0-2 on an error before being pinch-hit by Durbin.
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Isiah Kiner-Falefa: 0-3 and he didn’t run out of the box with a ground ball. The boos will come after him hard if things don’t improve.
Hitting David Hamilton: This is a situation and not a man, but it’s worth noting because this was almost the key play of the game in what would have been a horrible loss. To put it bluntly, David Hamilton sucks at hitting! The only way he can hurt you is with his legs, so when he came in with the bases loaded and one out in a 3-0 game, all Garrett Crochet had to do was hang around the zone and Hamilton was probably torn. Instead, Crochet hit him on the first pitch and almost let Milwaukee come back on this one.
You could also say that Alex Cora left Crochet for too long (107 releases), and that would be a fair criticism. I just can’t use a flop on that here because the alternative was going to Zack Kelly even earlier, so it was an extremely tough spot.
Game play:
Overall, the headline of the night is how good Crochet was for the first six frames. He did exactly what an ace should do for most of his outing. Here are his seven strikeouts:
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Since the start of last season, Garrett Crochet leads all of baseball with 12 wins in games after his team lost. Interestingly, second on that list with 11 is Sonny Gray, and the series finale begins tomorrow afternoon at 1:35 p.m.