Garrett Crochet’s season has been a roller coaster to this point. After allowing just four runs in his first three starts he allowed 17 earned runs in his next three spanning from April 13th-24.
The growing pains are not surprising. The 24-year-old is venturing into uncharted territory in his first year as a starting pitcher after missing nearly two seasons due to injury. The White Sox are also being conservative with his innings out of caution for the first-year starter.
While his late April numbers were ugly, Crochet did manage to set a career-high in strikeouts in one of those starts against the Cincinnati Reds. On Friday he put that tough stretch in the rearview mirror by setting a new career high in strikeouts in arguably his best start to date.
Crochet punched out 11 Cleveland Guardians over six scoreless innings, with no walks and just five hits allowed. He threw 72 of his 97 pitches for strikes and recorded 21 swings and misses. Nine of those whiffs came courtesy of his cutter which had the movement of a back door slider on Friday. Crochet’s cutter also accounted for four of his 11 strikeouts.
“It’s something I’m going to remember forever. He’s one of the best pitchers I’ve ever caught in my life,” Crochet’s battery mate Korey Lee told reporters after Friday’s 6-3 victory over the Cleveland Guardians.
However, it was his fastball that was his primary weapon of choice. The southpaw threw it 47 times. He mixed in 32 cutters, 11 sliders, and seven changeups. While he didn’t rely much on his changeup, it kept hitters off balance and was used for two strikeouts. Crochet’s 64 strikeouts over his first nine starts surpassed Chris Sale’s franchise record of 60 in 2012.
Crochet attributed his success to getting ahead in the count and getting leadoff outs. Crochet has always been one to attack the strike zone but on Friday he was able to be a bit more unpredictable with his pitch mix. With Crochet’s stuff, Lee believes he can be effective just by living in the strike zone.
“You know that a 99-mile-an-hour fastball is coming but you can’t hit it,” Lee explained. “And that’s the beauty of him– having that power but also having the cutter and the changeup and the slider in his back pocket.”
The biggest moment in the game came in the sixth inning. Typically White Sox manager Pedro Grifol has Crochet on a tight leash to manage his workload. But with the former Tennesse Volunteer rolling, Grifol decided to give him a little extra rope.
With two outs in the sixth inning, Crochet worked himself into a jam after allowing back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners for Ramon Laureano. Crochet proceeded to challenge him with four straight fastballs to get ahead in the count 1-2 before burying a cutter on Laureano’s back foot for his 11th and final strikeout of the game.
“That’s the credit that I give him,” Grifol said when asked if he was surprised how Crochet has pitched this year as a starter. “He wanted to do this and he was hellbent on doing it mentally and physically. He’s got talent and he’s got the right mindset for it. We’ll see how it goes.”
Crochet has been much better than his 4.63 ERA suggests. His 64 strikeouts are the second most in the MLB behind only Tyler Glasnow. He is also limiting opponents to a .211 batting average.
