Crochet is healthy, he and manager Alex Cora said.
He was just bad — really, really bad.
“I mean, I don’t really have anything to say,” Crochet said. “I’m just gonna flush it as best I can. Move on to the next one . . . I don’t really have one thing to point to.”
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Cora added: “He’s healthy, so that’s the most important thing.”
And pitching coach Andrew Bailey: “It’s a little eye-opening obviously. I think there’s a little frustration and curiosity.”
For Crochet, it was a total mess. For the Red Sox (6-10), it was a potential momentum-stopper, erasing any chance they had at securing what would have been their first three-game winning streak of the year.
Among the unfortunate footnotes:
⋅ It was the shortest start of Crochet’s career (outside a four-pitch, rain-shortened outing in 2024).
⋅ It was the most runs he had allowed in a game (surpassing his previous high of seven, done three times).
⋅ It was the first time he did not strike out anybody in a start (again excepting that rainy 2024 day).
“It’s tough to say [what went wrong],” Crochet said. “I mean, command as a whole has been spotty. I’ve gotten away with it a little early in the year, but tonight, they made me pay. . . . They had a good approach.”
His four-seam fastball averaged 94.9 miles per hour, down from his season average of 96.1. The last one he threw was 92.7. It was similar for his cutter, sinker, and sweeper.
“I don’t think that’s anything to fret over,” he said.
The gory details of his night began innocuously enough.
Austin Martin sent a grounder hard down the left-field line, just out of the reach of third baseman Caleb Durbin for a double. A wild pitch, which could have been ruled a passed ball on catcher Carlos Narváez, moved him to third. Then Luke Keaschall sent another grounder toward third, much softer this time but again past Durbin for another double. Ryan Jeffers dunked a single into left for another run.
Just like that, Minnesota (10-7) jumped out to a 2-0 lead — not good, but seemingly happenstantial.
After Josh Bell flied out to left for the second out of the inning, Crochet lost control. He walked Victor Caratini on five pitches, then hit Matt Wallner to load the bases. That was when Bailey visited the mound for the first and only time.
Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story loses his glove and the ball while trying to make a flip during the Twins’ seven-run second inning on Monday.Abbie Parr/Associated Press
Brooks Lee bounced a single up the middle. Shortstop Trevor Story made a diving stop but — in a desperate attempt to glove-flip the ball to second baseman Marcelo Mayer for an improbable force out — lost both his glove and the ball, which rolled around the right side of the infield. A second (and unearned) run scored.
“After that, he got hit hard,” Cora said.
When Crochet returned for the second, he was worse. Byron Buxton, single. Martin, walk. Keaschall, four-pitch walk.
Jeffers singled to bring in a run and keep the bases loaded. On back-to-back pitches, Josh Bell drove a two-run double off the wall in right-center and Caratini blasted a three-run home run off the facing of the third deck in left.
That made 10 runs.
“Everything happened so quick,” Narváez said.
Ryan Kreidler, a light-hitting third baseman, sent Crochet’s last pitch an estimated 438 feet to left for another home run.
“The first [inning] was a little bit better. I got three outs. In the second, only got two,” Crochet said. “In the second, I think I felt like I was throwing the ball better and the results were worse.”
Jovani Morán entered in relief of Crochet and pitched 2⅓ scoreless innings, two outs longer than Crochet. He warmed up in a hurry when the second inning escalated.
“It’s very hard because you still have to play seven innings. It sucks,” Cora said. “As a manager, it’s hard to watch [and think], OK, when do we take him out? But at the same time, you still have to cover innings and keep the bullpen quote-unquote fresh.”
The game was all but over by sunset, but they did play the rest. Buxton homered off Ryan Watson in the fifth, his 85th at Target Field, the most in the ballpark’s history. Twins righthander Bailey Ober (six innings) gave up four runs, two on Jarren Duran’s first long ball of the year. Roman Anthony reached base four times, via a double, a hit by pitch, and two walks.
Crochet’s next start is scheduled for Sunday against the Tigers.
“Everybody has one of those days,” Narváez said. “He’s a beast. I know the next time it’s gonna be different.”
Tim Healey can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @timbhealey.
