NEW YORK - It seemed like a good idea at the time, rostering the 2025 AL Cy Young Award runner-up even though he hadn't pitched in a game since April 25.
Yet when Boston Red Sox manager Chad Tracy summoned Garrett Crochet with the teams' season hanging in the balance in Game 2 of the AL wild card series, it went very, very bad.
Like many of Tracy's decisions in this two-game set, inserting Crochet in a two-run game in the sixth backfired - and effectively ended their season.
Crochet struck out the first batter he faced, but a wild pitch enabled Spencer Jones to reach first base. Then, a stolen base, a throwing error, a solid George Lombard Jr. single, a seeing-eye hit from Jazz Chisholm Jr. and a bunt single by Trent Grisham and, well, game over?
Tracy saw enough by the time Grisham's single loaded the bases, lifting Crochet with the Yankees trailing 3-1. Two more runs scored when set-up man Garrett Whitlock gave up a sacrifice fly to Austin Wells and RBI groundout to Ryan McMahon.
For good measure, Tracy ordered an intentional walk of Ben Rice - and Cody Bellinger blasted a three-run homer off Whitlock.
A 2-1 game became 8-1. Four runs, all earned, were charged to Crochet, who did not record an out.
That put them in a four-run hole with nine outs to go. And what looked like a creative use of resources turned out to be a debacle to likely end Boston's season.
You're all invited to the Belli Bash 🥳#RepBX pic.twitter.com/GEpSR4l0Vl
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) October 1, 2026
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Red Sox ace has MLB playoff disaster pitching first game in months
