The Boston Red Sox stole Game 1 of the American League wild card series against the New York Yankees on Tuesday night thanks to a fantastic outing by their ace, Garrett Crochet.
Crochet has put together a spectacular 2025 season in his fifth year in the MLB, leading the AL with 205.1 innings pitched and the entire MLB with 255 strikeouts.
On Tuesday night, he continued his dominance, and the crazier part is he told his manager it was going to happen the day before.
Crochet Knew He Would Dominate the Yankees
The Yankees got on the board first with a solo home run in the second inning by shortstop Anthony Volpe. However, after that, Crochet completely shut down New York’s bats.
Crochet delivered 7.2 innings and gave up just that single run. The Red Sox’s ace gave up just four hits and struck out 11 batters.
After the game, Red Sox’s manager Alex Cora told the media a story from yesterday, where Crochet predicted exactly how Tuesday night’s outing would go.
Crochet told Cora yesterday he was only going to make one call to the pen 🤯 ☎️
“He was in the dugout with me… he’s like, ‘No, ONE. It’s gonna be straight to Chappy.'”
HIM. 🐷 pic.twitter.com/12xlHJSxzW
— NESN (@NESN) October 1, 2025
“He was in the dugout with me. I told him, ‘We should call the bullpen.’ And he’s like, ‘Tomorrow you’re going to make one call to the bullpen,'” Cora said. “I said, ‘Maybe two.’ He’s like, ‘No no no, one. It’s going to be straight to Chappy (Aroldis Chapman).’ I was like, ‘Okay I’ll take that.”
Crochet did exactly that. The Red Sox’s starter got a quick seventh inning and had thrown 100 pitches on the day, and Cora decided to send him back out onto the mound for the eighth.
Crochet ended up throwing a career-high 117 pitches, and got two outs in the eighth inning before Chapman came in to get the Red Sox to the ninth.
Although Crochet admitted he didn’t actually expect to pitch into the eighth, it’s still a fun story, and he did deliver on the statement he made.
Crochet on this story:
“Just being arrogant to be honest. I didn’t actually expect that to be the case, but when he sent me back out there, I was determined to leave it that way.” 💪 https://t.co/bHwOz4Cv0E pic.twitter.com/ibAKz9wF2Y
— NESN (@NESN) October 1, 2025
“Just being arrogant to be honest,” Crochet said with a smirk. “I didn’t actually expect that to be the case, but when he sent me back out there, I was determined to leave it that way.”
That’s exactly what happened. Chapman got the final out of the eighth and then pitched a scoreless ninth to secure the Red Sox’s victory in Game 1.
It didn’t come without hiccups, as Chapman loaded the bases with no outs, but was able to dance his way out of it with two strikeouts, and now Boston is one win away from the ALDS.
