Crochet Bounces Back With 6 Scoreless and the Red Sox Remind Everyone They Can Actually Hit

Garrett Crochet was a mess. Two straight starts where he'd given up 15 earned runs combined. You could feel the panic setting in, the kind of thing that spirals fast in April when your team is already 10-17. Then Saturday at Camden Yards happened, and suddenly the Red Sox looked like a team that remembered how to play baseball.

Crochet went vintage. Six scoreless innings, three hits, two walks, seven strikeouts. Ninety pitches, 57 for strikes. He was heavy on four-seamers (59 percent of his pitch mix) but kept the Orioles honest with nasty sweepers, cutters, and sinkers that looked impossible to barrel up. This was his first clean outing since Opening Day in Cincinnati, and it snapped a four-game losing streak that felt like it was crushing the whole clubhouse. Boston won 17-1. Yeah, you read that right.

The Offense Showed Up and Didn't Leave

But here's the wild part: it wasn't the big names who set the tone. Utility guy Andruw Monasterio ripped a one-out double in the second to spark a three-run rally. With two outs already on the board, Caleb Durbin, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and Ceddanne Rafalea all got RBI hits to chase Trevor Rogers out of the game after just one inning.

It kept getting worse (or better, depending on your jersey) for Baltimore. Connor Wong added a bases-clearing, three-run double to right in the seventh with two outs to push it to 7-0. Then came the ninth inning beatdown: ten more runs scored, including a trio of homers and a grand slam from Monasterio. The Red Sox's highest-scoring inning since they dropped 13 runs in the eighth against the same Orioles team on May 23 last year. Their best ninth inning since a 10-run explosion against the Twins back on May 7, 2017.

Crochet Was The Real Story

With all those runs backing him up, Crochet did what aces are supposed to do. He went to work. This mattered way more than another blowout win because Crochet's the guy this team needs if they're going to fix a 10-17 start. When you've got a lefty ace pitching clean baseball like that, you've got something to build on.

This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.