BALTIMORE — One day after Garrett Crochet signed a six-year extension to anchor the Red Sox rotation, the lefthander offered a dazzling display of why the team felt him worthy of a $170 million contract.
Crochet came roaring back from an underwhelming Opening Day performance, abandoning a nibbling, cutter-heavy approach by unleashing mid- to upper-90s comets in the strike zone. The result was one of the best starts by a Red Sox pitcher this decade.
Crochet logged a career-high eight scoreless innings to lead the Red Sox to a 3-0 win over the Orioles and snap his team’s four-game losing streak. It marked not only the first time Crochet had pitched eight innings since his freshman year of college (“I hadn’t sniffed it since,” he chuckled), but also just the fourth Red Sox start of at least eight shutout innings since 2020.
The pitcher was not looking to validate the contract so much as he wanted to reach for his own standard of excellence.
“Today, it was more of a statement to myself. Who do I want to be this year? Who am I as a person and as a pitcher?” Crochet said. “And that was just someone that wants to compete in the zone and lose with their best.”
Or, in this case, wins with it.
Exactly half of Crochet’s 102 pitches were four-seam fastballs. The Orioles took defensive hacks against heaters and were unbalanced by the pitcher’s secondary offerings. The 25-year-old mixed in cutters, sweepers, and of particular note, a very effective changeup — a pitch that elicited four swings-and-misses, more than Crochet had ever gotten in a single game in his career.
He limited the Orioles to just four hits (all singles) and one walk while striking out eight and throwing 67 percent of his pitches for strikes. The combination of dominance and glimpses of forward career progress — both in his career-high for innings in an outing and as diverse a mix as he’s ever had in a start — underscored the Sox’ belief that they signed a pitcher not only with elite present ability but runway to continue to improve.
“That’s the reason he’s here. That’s the reason we committed to him,” manager Alex Cora said. “He’s the guy that we wanted out there. He did an outstanding job.”
As Crochet stifled the Orioles, a number of Red Sox players who’d been slumping to start the year mounted a steady attack against Baltimore starter Zach Eflin. Trevor Story, who’d been 2-for-15 to open the year, jumped on an elevated sweeper and launched it into the seats in left-center for a solo homer in the second inning — the first of three hits for Story.
“It felt great to contribute offensively,” Story exhaled.
After rookie Kristian Campbell ripped a liner down the right field line for a double to open the fifth inning — the first of two doubles to celebrate his own long-term deal with the club — Ceddanne Rafaela (1-for-16 to that point) jumped on a poorly-spun sweeper on an 0-2 count, lining an RBI single to center to usher Campbell home.
Two batters later, a landmark moment arrived. Beleaguered slugger Rafael Devers, collared by an 0-for-21 albatross, unloaded on a thigh-high Eflin curveball, scorching a double at 110 m.p.h. into the right field corner for an RBI double. Both the Red Sox dugout and a sizable contingent of Red Sox fans down the third base line erupted at the sight of Devers’ first hit of the 2025 campaign, which gave the Sox a 3-0 advantage.
“We all needed that one,” said Cora.
Devers later added a single in a 2-for-4 performance. He expressed amusement in the face of the Sturm und Drang inspired by his struggles, and the evident catharsis experienced by so many around at Camden Yards after his hits.
“It was more for other people than for me,” Devers said through a translator. “I knew it was going to come, but I also received a lot of texts from people worrying about me. I was okay.”
With the Sox up by a field goal, the chief question was how long Cora would allow Crochet to work. A 10-pitch seventh — which left the lefty at 92 pitches — bought Crochet another inning. Though he yielded a leadoff single to Ramón Urías in the eighth, Crochet rebounded to get a lineout and finally a 5-4-3 double play from Cedric Mullins on a sinker.
“Crochet’s an ace and one of the best pitchers in the game,” said Story. “After our start to the season, we needed a stopper in there, and Crochet comes in there and does what he does.”
Aroldis Chapman then worked around a walk for a scoreless ninth to record his first save as a Red Sox — concluding the first of what the Red Sox hope are many more victories with Crochet on the mound in the months and years to come.
Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him @alexspeier.
