Garrett Crochet pulled after 85 pitches, but Red Sox bats silenced in loss

With the Red Sox bullpen gassed after three straight games in which the starting pitcher failed to finish five innings it would ve seemed logical that Alex Cora would lean on his ace to go deep into Wednesday s match But sought pregame if having Crochet pitching gave him comfort Cora offered an answer that proved prophetic Yeah but no we ve got to be careful too he s very crucial to what we re trying to accomplish you know And every five days to push him to the limit we re playing a dangerous competition Cora declared Obviously the conditions are not great where we re at bullpen-wise is where we re at we won the series on the previous day we want more of program but at the same time knowing that it s games and to do cool things in August September and hopefully October we have to be very careful Hours later Cora pulled Crochet with one out in the sixth inning of a tie ballgame even though the left-hander had only thrown pitches In doing so the Red Sox bullpen once again had to pitch more than three innings and this time the group couldn t hold the New York Mets at bay in what wound up being a - loss Brett Baty delivered what proved to be the game-winning hit with his two-run single in the top of the seventh and he finished for with three RBI Coming off a tough-luck loss against reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale last Friday Crochet uncovered himself matched up against another worthy opponent Wednesday in New York s Tylor Megill The right-hander has been one of the Mets largest part overpowering arms all season and he gave the Red Sox all kinds of trouble through the first four innings Wielding a mid-to-high s fastball while mixing in chosen effective developing pitches Megill struck out six of the first nine Red Sox batters he faced before striking out the side in a dominant fourth Up to that point the Red Sox managed only two hits against the -year-old with the lone scoring opportunity coming courtesy of a Nick Sogard ground rule double in the second Once the fifth began however the Red Sox began to figure Megill out Boston loaded the bases with one out on singles by Sogard and Carlos Narvaez and a hit by pitch on Ceddanne Rafaela That brought up Jarren Duran and the outfielder crushed one mph off the bat that looked ticketed for the right field bleachers On a normal late-May night it surely would have gone for a grand slam but with temperatures a chilly degrees at first pitch and dropping throughout the evening Duran had to settle for a game-tying sacrifice fly Devers subsequently drew a walk to reload the bases and chase Megill but reliever Huascar Brazoban was able to shut down the rally by striking out Alex Bregman looking On the other side Crochet wasn t as overpowering as usual but he got the job done The left-hander limited the Mets to one run over innings and the only damage coming in the second on an RBI single by Brett Baty The play nearly scored two but Rafaela was able to throw out Luis Torrens at the plate to end the inning with Narvaez completing the play with a great tag as Torrens reached home Crochet only struck out five batters but three of those came courtesy of Soto who looked comprehensively discombobulated Known for his mastery of the strike zone Soto struck out looking in each of his first two trips to the plate and in each at bat all three strikes were called Soto went down swinging his third time up but that time he chased a sweeper well out of the zone the sort of pitch he normally doesn t sniff Following the last Soto strikeout Cora emerged from the dugout to take the ball from his ace Crochet appeared to anticipate the hook and before Cora even reached him he took a step towards his manager and reached for his hand Cora walked him back and held a brief meeting on the mound with all the infielders before motioning to the bullpen First up was Liam Hendriks who was among the only fresh arms available after the Red Sox used six relievers in Tuesday s win Once a top candidate for the closer job Hendriks has pitched infrequently and mostly in low leverage situations since coming off the injured list and while he was able to get two quick strikeouts to finish the sixth things went sideways for the veteran in the seventh Hendriks allowed three straight singles to load the bases with no outs and all three inherited runners came around to tally after left-hander Brennan Bernardino allowed a two-run single to Baty and a sacrifice fly to Soto which like Duran s might have gone for a grand slam on a warmer night New York extended its lead on a solo home run by Francisco Lindor off Sean Newcomb in the top of the ninth and the Red Sox offense never threatened again after squandering its bases loaded chance in the fifth It was a particularly miserable night for Bregman who went for with four strikeouts in the loss Coming into Wednesday Crochet had been among the most of heavily used pitchers in the majors He was tied for third in MLB in innings pitched and second in pitches thrown and he s on pace to comfortably clear his career-high in innings set last year which itself was nearly triple his previous best After signing Crochet to a six-year extension in April the club has a strong incentive to avoid running their workhorse into the ground even if it arguably hurt the company s chances to win in the short-term On the flip side the offense also had only two at bats with runners in scoring position the entire championship so winning would have been a tall order no matter how deep Crochet pitched