White Sox’s Garrett Crochet Dominates Mariners, Punches Out Career-High 13
Garrett Crochet had himself a night to remember at T-Mobile Park on Thursday.
The 24-year-old lefty, making his 15th start of 2024, steamrolled the Seattle Mariners, punching out a career-high 13 batters across seven innings. He tossed 102 pitches (66 strikes), one shy of matching his career-high of 103 set against the Milwaukee Brewers on June 1st.
Crochet induced 24 swings and misses, also a career-high, while allowing just one run on a pair of hits and walks, lowering his ERA to 3.16 on the year.
The Chicago White Sox hurler departed in line for the win following the most dominating performance of his career. But he ultimately earned a no-decision after Julio Rodríguez’s ninth-inning, game-tying solo shot knotted the score at two runs apiece.
Andrew Vaughn put the White Sox back in front in the top half of the 10th, taking a 3-2 lead on an RBI groundout. With a clean frame in the bottom half, they closed out an extra-innings victory, snapping their four-game losing streak.
None of that would’ve been possible without Crochet, who carved through the Mariners lineup despite throwing only one changeup all night. Of his 102 pitches, he threw 71 four-seamers and 30 cutters, with the duo surrendering one hit on nine balls put in play against them.
“I think they just protect each other well,” Crochet told reporters of his two fastballs, including the AP. “My heater is fairly straight but has a little bit of cut sometimes. So I think that they look very similar up until the last five feet from the plate. That’s kind of allowed it to be its own weapon.”
Crochet’s only blemish came off the lone changeup he threw versus Seattle, which just cleared the wall in left beyond Andrew Benintendi’s out-stretched glove for Mariners rookie Tyler Locklear’s first career home run.
The hard-throwing left-hander reached double-digit strikeouts for the fifth time this season, extending his American League lead in that category to 116, tied with Los Angeles’ Tyler Glasnow for first in the majors. He also leads all qualified big-league starters in strikeout rate (35.7%).
Crochet, an 11th-overall selection by the White Sox in 2020, has flourished in his first season as a starting pitcher after spending the previous three in the bullpen. Across 82.2 innings, he owns a 2.71 FIP and .182 OPP AVG, worth a career-high 2.6 fWAR.
For his career, the Ocean Springs, Mississippi, native has struck out 201 hitters in 155.2 innings. It’s his first full big-league season after returning from Tommy John surgery – which wiped out his entire 2022 campaign – in May ‘23.
Amidst a breakout season, Crochet – who’ll turn 25 later this month – may end up pitching his way out of Chicago ahead of the July 30th trade deadline, with several potential suitors expected to pursue the now-converted starter.
With the White Sox rebuilding, the asking price for Crochet’s services will likely be significant, considering he’s earning a modest $800,000 in 2024 and isn’t eligible for free agency until after the ‘26 season.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @Hall_Thomas_
Photo: Zakarie Faibis. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.