The MLB playoffs are here with one Mississippian set to take front and center stage on Tuesday night.
Garrett Crochet, an Ocean Springs native who’s up for this year’s American League Cy Young Award, will get the ball in game one of the Boston Red Sox’s three-game Wild Card series against divisional rival New York Yankees. The game is set to begin at 5:08 p.m. CT and will be broadcast on ESPN.
Crochet is coming off a career-best regular season in which he took the mound 32 times and led the AL with 205 1/3 innings of work. He leads the entire MLB with 255 strikeouts, has a sixth-best 2.59 ERA, and has compiled an 18-5 record along the way.
READ MORE: Crochet gets second All-Star nod in first year with Boston
Heading into his first postseason start, after getting one postseason shot as a reliever during his four seasons with the Chicago White Sox, the 6-foot-6 slinger spoke with the media about his mindset.
“I’m just going to try my best to treat it as another start,” he explained. “Obviously, the implications are a little bit bigger, but for me, there’s no need to put any excess pressure on it.”
Even-keel is a good way to be, considering Crochet will be going up against one of the fiercest lineups in the MLB, featuring the likes of Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Paul Goldschmidt, Trent Grisham, Jazz Chisholm Jr., and Cody Bellinger.
While New York leads the MLB by significant margins in home runs (274) and runs batted in (820), arguably no pitcher has had as much success against the Bronx Bombers this season as Crochet has. In four regular-season starts against the Yankees, Crochet has a 3-0 record while carrying a 3.29 ERA. Boston won all four games Crochet started, helping to make for a 9-4 record against their rivals heading into the postseason.
“I’ve pitched [in New York] twice already this year and faced this lineup four times. I don’t want to say it’s comfortable, because it’s a tough opposing lineup, but there is a sense of comfort there and just knowing the faces I’m going to be going up against,” Crochet continued. “For me, it’s just taking it one pitch at a time and trying to go as deep in the ballgame as I can.”
So, does Boston have enough in the tank to keep the regular-season success going and bounce New York from the playoffs? Crochet has a lot of confidence in his club, one that has grown close-knit over the last 162 games.
“It feels like we have 26 guys that feel the same way. Since day one, it feels like, as far as extending a helping hand and being a good teammate, that role has been carried on throughout the clubhouse,” Crochet said, later acknowledging during the press availability that manager Alex Cora has had immense success in the postseason.
“Obviously, he won a ring (in 2018) here and he knows what it takes,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s on us as players to get the job done, but he’s put us in position all year long to get the job done, and I look forward to playing for him in the postseason.”
While New York’s hitting has been historic, Boston’s is no slouch either. The Red Sox have an MLB fourth-best batting average of .254. Boston’s pitching, led by Crochet, has the fourth-best ERA in the league at 3.70. Starting Tuesday night’s game for the Yankees will be Max Fried, the only pitcher in the league to have more wins (19) than Crochet.
Crochet, who graduated from Ocean Springs High School in 2017 before playing collegiately at Tennessee from 2018-20, isn’t the only Mississippi face who will be part of the rivalry’s postseason edition. Jackson Prep alum and pitcher Will Warren cracked New York’s postseason roster after a career-high 33 starts in the regular season. Warren, holding a 9-8 record as a second-year pro, could be used in the series, according to Yankees manager Aaron Boone.
“There’s some pickets where he could be really effective for us,” Boone told reporters. “It might be in the short-verse, it might be in the situation where we need some length from him, it might be in extra innings where you’re out of pitching and you have to roll. He’s pitched really effectively for us all year.”
Game two and game three, if needed, are set for Wednesday and Thursday, and will have the same start time as Tuesday’s, with all first pitches set for 5:08 p.m. CT. In addition to being broadcast on ESPN, the series can be watched on MLB.TV with authentication to a participating TV provider. The winner of the series will play another divisional rival, the Toronto Blue Jays, in the ALDS.
