BALTIMORE, MD - AUGUST 28: Alex Cora #13 of the Boston Red Sox addresses the media before a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on August 28, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
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The Boston Red Sox suffered a shutout loss against the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday but the team could still be more concerned with Monday’s loss instead.
In that game, Red Sox superstar ace Garrett Crochet took the mound looking to build on a strong outing against the Milwaukee Brewers. Instead, he posted the worst start of his Major League Baseball career by far, a brutal 11-run performance that was cut short by manager Alex Cora with two outs in the second inning.
“Crochet, a two-time All-Star who finished second in American League Cy Young Award voting last season, became the first Red Sox pitcher to allow 10 runs in fewer than two innings,” ESPN News Services reported. “The 26-year-old left-hander gave up four runs, three earned, in a 31-pitch first inning. Minnesota scored seven more in the second before Crochet was removed with two outs and Boston trailing 11-0.”
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After posting a 2.59 ERA in 32 starts for the Red Sox last year, Crochet entered Tuesday’s start with high expectations and a growing resume to back them up. So the issues — which ranged from a wild pitch to a hit batter to several emphatic home runs allowed — were a significant surprise.
“It was shocking,” Dan Shaughnessy wrote for The Boston Globe. “Suddenly, Garrett Crochet was a meatball artist. Pitching against the Twins at Target Field Monday night, Boston’s Randy Johnson-esque, powerhouse lefty was vulnerable.”
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“Ordinarily, if you’re as good as Garrett is, and you have a first inning like that, you’re going to hang in there for seven or eight innings to keep your ERA down,” Baltimore Orioles Hall of Famer Jim Palmer told Shaughnessy. “But if a guy’s velocity is down like that and I have another 146 games to play, don’t you usually go to the bullpen?”
In the first inning, Crochet gave up two doubles, two singles, threw a wild pitch, hit a batter and yielded four runs, all while the radar gun indicated his velocity was lower than usual. Given Crochet’s importance to the rest of the Red Sox’s season, that might have been enough for Cora to end his start — at least in Palmer’s estimation.
Instead, Crochet returned to the mound for two more outs, giving up two more walks, two more singles, a two-run double and two home runs before Cora finally pulled him out. In retrospect, he might have let the nightmare go on a little too long.
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