Garrett Crochet’s rough start: aberration or cause for concern?

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - APRIL 13: Garrett Crochet #35 of the Boston Red Sox looks on against the Minnesota Twins during the first inning at Target Field on April 13, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) | Getty Images

Boston Red Sox pitcher Garrett Crochet is the true definition of an ace: dependable, dominant, and downright terrifying to step into the box against.

So… what the hell is going on?

Crochet has been unusually shaky to kickstart the season, allowing nearly as many runs (18) as strikeouts recorded (22) — with those aggressively poor numbers being fueled by an all-time poor outing against the Minnesota Twins on Monday.

Crochet got absolutely rocked by one of the least intimidating yet surprisingly productive lineups in baseball, allowing 11 runs in only 1 2/3 innings pitched at Target Field. The Red Sox — who have been around for as long as crayons, airplanes, cellophane, and Australia — have never had someone give up as many runs in so few innings.

It’s not like he’s going to ever be this bad again, but check out his pitching summaries on the season:

March 26 @ CIN
6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 R, 8 K
April 1 @ HOU
5.0 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 5 R, 7 K
April 7 vs. MIL
6.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 R, 7 K
April 13 @ MIN
1.2 IP, 9 H, 10 ER, 11 R, 0 K

Good. Eh. Good. Nuked.

So… back to our original question. What the hell is going on?

I’ve decided to look at this start through two lenses, which will hopefully tell us whether or not we should be freaking out.

“It’s just a bad start, man. Paul Skenes biffed one a couple of weeks ago!”

Paul Skenes did, indeed, biff one a couple of weeks back, allowing five earned runs in 2/3 inning back on Opening Day against the New York Mets. Randy Johnson gave up 11 in 2 1/3 back in 1994. Greg Maddux allowed eight in the same amount of time in 1988. Roger Clemens allowed eight in 1 1/3 in 1995.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora came out after the game and shut down the idea that his ace was injured:

“He’s healthy, and that’s the most important thing,” he said, as seen on NESN.

Crochet backed that statement up:

“I don’t think there’s anything to fret over,” he said.

It’s just something that happens, even to the best of us.

“I don’t care what you say! I just bought a panic button and intend on using it in four days!”

If you take a closer look at the stuff, you would know that everything was down… across the board.

Crochet threw one of the slowest four-seam fastballs of his career (92.7 MPH) and gave up some of the hardest exit velocities of his career (108.9 MPH, 106.5 MPH, 106.0 MPH) — with those three hits coming in the form of two home runs and a terrifying single. Crochet couldn’t even pinpoint exactly why this particular start went so poorly, as he gave away more free passes (four) than whiffs induced (three).

“It’s tough to say,” Crochet said. “I mean, command as a whole has been spotty. I’d gotten away with it a little this early in the year, but tonight they made me pay. It was weak contact, hard contact, walks, hit by pitch, a little bit of everything.”

If he can’t see what went wrong, how is he going to fix it?

We have never seen him pitch this poorly, and with two of his last four starts being among the four worst he has ever had…

Conclusion:

It’s probably fine.

The Red Sox have seen something like this before, with one very important statistic coming from our pal Jake Roy: Crochet threw 102 pitches in his second start of 2025, leading to his average velocity dipping 1.5 mph in his third start. It’s the same thing here, as the velocity drop came after his 107 pitch performance against the Milwaukee Brewers.

If he can’t get the velocity back to normal on regular rest, there’s no reason to think the results won’t follow.

If he can’t, we’ll revisit this conversation.