Red Sox pitching concerns abound after another rough Garrett Crochet start, depth injuries

The Boston Red Sox have learned early that when things don't go right for Garrett Crochet, they don't go right for anyone. The ace hasn't looked like himself in his last few starts and Boston's offense hasn't been able to string together enough hits to pick up the slack.

Crochet on April 13 had the worst outing of his career against the Minnesota Twins, and while it looked like he was bouncing back against the Detroit Tigers, things went sour soon enough. Crochet allowed consecutive doubles in the first inning to give the Tigers an early lead, then kept them quiet until the fifth inning when he allowed a solo home run to Jahmai Jones, a four-pitch walk to Gleyber Torres and a three-run blast to Dillon Dingler. His ERA jumped to 7.88 after his appearance against Detroit.

Crochet's collapse was sudden. He'd generated two strikeouts to begin the fifth inning before the Jones home run. Crochet told reporters after the game that he felt in control for almost the entire outing and attributed his struggles to falling behind in counts, rather than being too predictable, like he thought last week in Minnesota.

“To be honest, I don’t even know if that (predictability) was ever really the issue. I think that was more of what I thought was the issue. Right now, it’s that every mistake I make is getting absolutely hammered. It’s because there are mistakes when I’m behind in the count,” Crochet said (via Chris Cotillo of MassLive).

Red Sox depth pitching options took a hit before another poor start from Garrett Crochet

Pitching was supposed to be the strength of this Red Sox team and seemingly only Connelly Early and Ranger Suárez are living up to the hype. Crochet's struggles are an absolute worst-case scenario for this team — not only has he not played the stopper role in recent weeks, he hasn't been able to go long enough into games to give the bullpen a break.

On a rare positive note, Crochet's velocity was back up after a scary dip during his performance against the Twins that had people wondering if he was injured. If he was, the Sox would be in a rough spot.

Pitching depth is also supposed to be a strength of this Sox team, but multiple depth starter options remain out of commission. Both Kutter Crawford and Patrick Sandoval had their rehab stints halted to address potential injuries. Crawford experienced elbow soreness after his rehab start on April 11 and Sandoval had biceps soreness.

The Red Sox initially believed Crawford's issue was mild enough that he wouldn't need imaging, but his soreness lingered long enough that he had scans done as a precaution. They came back clear. Boston doesn't think Sandoval will need imaging, just a few days of rest. But any delay in the the depth starters' recovery is suboptimal, especially when the rotation as underwhelmed as it has. The pitchers could also be valuable long-relief options, which the Red Sox have needed lately as the rotation struggles.

Triple-A pitcher Tyler Uberstine is also on the seven-day injured list with shoulder soreness, further limiting Boston's depth options. He's posted a 2.79 ERA with nine strikeouts and six walks over 9.2 innings with the WooSox and he allowed a home run on three hits over 2.2 innings in his lone major league appearance.

Boston's rotation can't carry the team alone, but it needs to do more than it has done for the team to crawl out of the hole it's found itself in early this year. A rotation change isn't as much in the question any more as depth starter options deal with injuries and setbacks.

Crochet needs to be his best self for the Red Sox to live up to expectations, and against the Tigers, he was almost there. But almost isn't good enough when the offense is nonexistent.

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