The Boston Red Sox opened their season with a 3-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds, backed by a dominant performance by Garrett Crochet. After the game, Crochett described the process with the new pitch in the offseason and his old arsenal, according to Red Sox beat writer Christopher Smith.
“Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet added a splitter in the offseason and experimented with it during spring training games. But … Today, it was like ‘Hey, I'm banging the splitter for the year. I'll just go back to the changeup I was throwing last year.' Crochet said,” Smith wrote on X.
Crochet has been working on his mechanics to improve as a pitcher. He was already one of the best in baseball, finishing second in voting to Tarik Skubal for the AL Cy Young Award. Crochet getting the Opening Day start was not a surprise because he is one of the best in baseball.
Crochet went 18-5 with a 2.59 ERA and 255 strikeouts last season. Last season, he rolled with six pitches. His fastball and cutter were the pitches he relied on the most. Additionally, there was the sinker and sweeper. Crochet used a changeup occasionally and the split-finger. Now, he is working with a splitter that might make him even tougher to beat.
Crochet tossed six shutout innings while allowing just three hits. He relied a lot on the fastball and worked with the changeup, but the split-finger is still a work in progress. Regardless, he got the results he wanted, and Crochet got the job done in a win over the Reds.
