Garrett Crochet gave up a leadoff home run to Byron Buxton to begin his outing against the Minnesota Twins on Sunday, but he made up for it with a display of physical toughness later in the game, endearing himself to Boston Red Sox fans in the process.
In the top of the fourth inning, Crochet threw a 2-1 changeup to Carlos Correa, who put the ball in play with a line drive that skimmed off Crochet's glove and clipped him right in the nose. Correa was thrown out at first, but the entirety of Red Sox Nation held its breath as catcher Carlos Narváez, manager Alex Cora and team training staff rushed out to the mound as Crochet clutched his nose.
The southpaw was visibly bleeding, and the trainer appeared to be checking his face to make sure nothing was broken. The ball came off Correa's bat at an exit velocity of 86.7 mph according to Baseball Savant, which had many Red Sox fans fearing the worst for Crochet.
However, somewhat miraculously, Crochet appeared to avoid a major injury and opted to stay in the game. After throwing a couple of warmup pitches, he proceeded to strike out the next batter he faced. Talk about tough.
Red Sox’s Garrett Crochet takes line drive off face in bizarre outing vs. Twins
With the count at 2-0, Crochet gave up Brooks Lee’s single to center before Harrison Bader bounced to short to end the inning.
Admittedly, Crochet didn't have his best stuff Sunday against the Twins, even before he took the comebacker to the nose. He didn't seem to have his fastball, and his overall velocity was down, but he still managed to pitch five innings of one-run ball. He was pulled after the fifth inning, throwing 89 pitches with four hits, six strikeouts and a pair of walks.
Crochet now has a 2.02 ERA over 49 innings with a 56:20 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a 1.06 WHIP. Sunday may not have been Crochet's most dominant performance for the Red Sox, but it was certainly one of his more memorable outings.
More Red Sox content from BoSox Injection