Garrett Crochet strikes out 10 in dominant showing as Red Sox beat A's

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Sep 9, 2025

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

Garrett Crochet has been one of the best pitchers in baseball all season, but coming off a bizarre outing in which he allowed a season-worst seven runs, it was fair to wonder if the Red Sox ace was starting to run out of gas.

The big lefty dispelled any such concerns on Monday in Sacramento.

Crochet looked every bit his usual dominant self, shutting down the Athletics to help lead the Red Sox to a 7-0 win. The left-hander struck out 10 over seven scoreless innings, and the offense put together its most complete performance in nearly a week to make sure things were never in doubt.

“He wound out there against a tough lineup and pounded the strike zone, had good stuff and gave us more than enough,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters postgame.

Entering Monday Crochet had already thrown 178.1 innings, which ranked third in MLB behind only Detroit’s Tarik Skubal and San Francisco’s Logan Webb and was well over the career high of 146 he set last season with the Chicago White Sox.

That wear was seemingly evident last time out when Crochet allowed four home runs, including three in a calamitous six-run sixth inning.

One possible factor in that performance was that it was his second consecutive start on only four days rest after having previously gotten five or more days in each of his prior 10 outings. Crochet was back to five days rest Monday and clearly looked refreshed.

The Athletics were completely overmatched all night.

Crochet tallied 21 swing and misses and the only hit of any significance the A’s managed came on a Darrell Hernaiz double in the fifth. He moved to third on a subsequent lineout but Crochet stranded the runner and wound up retiring the last eight batters he faced.

Meanwhile, Trevor Story put the Red Sox in front with his 24th home run of the season in the top of the first and the club never looked back.

The Red Sox scored twice more in the second on RBI singles by Nick Sogard and Jarren Duran against Athletics starter Luis Morales, and in the fifth Carlos Narvaez hit a solo home run, Duran doubled and Alex Bregman brought him home with an RBI single to make it 5-0.

Boston put the game away with two more runs in the top of the eighth. Bregman and Story got into scoring position with nobody out and both came home to score on consecutive RBI singles by Romy Gonzalez and Masataka Yoshida.

All told the Red Sox tallied 12 hits as a team and went 5 for 9 with runners in scoring position. Five Red Sox players had multiple hits, with Story leading the way by going 2 for 4 with a home run and a double.

“We did a good job putting pressure on them,” Cora said. “Narvy did an outstanding job at the bottom of the lineup, we put the ball in play, Sogey with the hit, great baserunning play by Masa on that ball, so all around a good one.”

Hometown hero

With the Athletics playing at Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park while their new home in Las Vegas is under construction, this week marks a unique homecoming opportunity for Nick Sogard, who grew up in Sacramento and starred at nearby Jesuit High School.

Sogard gave his hometown fans something to cheer about, tallying an RBI single for the second straight game. He finished 1 for 4.

Abreu nearing return

Wilyer Abreu has been out with a right calf strain since Aug. 18, and what was originally believed to be a couple day absence has stretched out to over three weeks. But while the Red Sox outfielder isn’t likely to return in time for this weekend’s Yankees series, manager Alex Cora told reporters in Sacramento pregame Monday that Abreu could potentially be activated next week, possibly in time to face the Athletics at Fenway Park.

Gaining ground

Monday’s win was Boston’s 80th of the season, and with Toronto and New York both off the Red Sox gained half a game on each of their division rivals. The Red Sox now trail the Blue Jays by three games in the AL East race and the Yankees by one game for the top AL Wild Card spot.

The Red Sox have 17 games remaining and a five game lead over the Texas Rangers, who are currently the last team out of the AL playoff field. Boston’s playoff magic number, or the combined number of Red Sox wins and losses by the last team out needed to clinch a playoff berth, is currently 13.

________