Red Sox, mindful of workload, push Garrett Crochet's turn back a few days

Yahoo

3 days ago

MINNEAPOLIS — Underscoring his importance to the team and its chances for reaching the postseason, the Red Sox are planning to give ace Garrett Crochet a few additional days of rest before his next outing.
Crochet, who pitched last Saturday against the Dodgers, would ordinarily have been scheduled to go Friday when the Red Sox begin a brief six-game homestand.
Instead, Crochet will next pitch on either Monday or Tuesday, to ensure that he has some extra time between starts. Crochet, who was last season limited in his workload by his former team, the Chicago White Sox, has never pitched more than 146 innings in a single season. To date this year, his first with the Sox, he's at 141.1 innings, the most of any pitcher in the majors.
'This is something we've been talking about for a while here,' said Alex Cora, 'kind of like give him a breather. So we'll do that. This is the plan we had before (this week). We decided to do it.'
Crochet either leads or is tied for the MLB lead in innings pitched, strikeouts, and starts and is third in ERA. He's also shown no signs of fatigue despite approaching his career high in innings before August.
'It's huge. He's posted. He's done an outstanding job,' said Cora. 'There was one outing (in May against the Mets) that we planned accordingly, a short one (limiting him to 85 pitches). The other ones have been full-go. That's the thing - he'd actually rather (have a few extra days) instead of going 80 pitches in one outing. So we've talked about it as a group and we brought it during the week.'
Crochet is understanding of the team's thinking and believes the extra few days can be beneficial.
'It's a good time to catch my breath a little bit,' said Crochet. 'Not really a de-load, but a little bit so in that sense. I kind of knew, throughout the season, that we would try to find extra rest for me if we could. I'd like a five-day (routine), but I appreciate the front office and the managerial staff looking out for me.'
Crochet is unsure if this will be the last time the rotation is rearranged some to provide him with more bounce-back time.
'I think realistically, it kind of depends, as we get into August and September, what we're looking like as far as the postseason picture,' he said. 'But before we really get into the heat of August and September, while the off-days are still kind to us and we're able to do this without throwing everybody else off schedule as well, it benefits me and I feel like if you're benefitting anybody, you're ultimately benefitting the team.'
Crochet said he's holding up under the workload, even as he ventures into territory he's never before visited.
'I've been feeling really good,' he said. 'Last year, I didn't know what to expect. This year, I went into the break with 20 more innings than last year but felt a little bit better than I expected, to be honest with you. And that's kind of held true throughout the season for me.
'(I'm at a point that I'm) knowing what I actually need at this point in my career, whereas last year I didn't really know what I needed to do. I was just kind of throwing it together on the fly. This year, I've really stuck to it.'
A key, Crochet said, is 'kind of listening to my body as best I can. I definitely still like to have a good base of strength going into starts. But there are four or six-week cycles in the weight room, you kind of alternate between power output, speed output and then resting. So, it's kind of wherever that falls.'
Crochet confirmed he would rather have extra days rather than having his pitch count limited as it was for the one game in May.
'One hundred percent,' he said. '(Shortening an outing), you're kind of putting people in an awkward spot whereas now, whether someone comes up and makes a start or because of the off-day, we're able to bump everybody up and keep everyone else on a five-day (schedule). I feel guilty doing it to the guys, but that's where we're all here for - to pick each other up and pull for one another,'
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