'My stuff's electric right now': Crochet confident amidst rough patch

MINNEAPOLIS -- Through his first three trips to the mound as a member of the 2024 White Sox rotation, Garrett Crochet performed like one of the American League’s top starters.

Over the last three starts, including a 6-3 loss to the Twins Wednesday at Target Field that dropped the White Sox to 3-21, the southpaw looked like a pitcher working to adapt as the opposing hitters adapt to him. It’s certainly not a startling concept for the 24-year-old, who is where he wants to be and has attacked this starting opportunity with full gusto since the change from relief was decided with him during the offseason.

“He wants to be good,” said manager Pedro Grifol of Crochet. “Those in-game adjustments are something that are going to pay critical to him as far as navigating some innings at the big league level.”

“Yeah, he has a good mentality going into this thing,” said catcher Korey Lee, who homered and picked up his first career stolen base as part of a sixth straight White Sox loss. “He’s a great pitcher. He’s an even better guy. He’s the leader of our pitching staff right now. He’s doing a great job with that. He's going to bounce back and we are going to continue to work, continue to watch video, and execute our plan.”

Crochet posted a 2.00 ERA and .169 opponents' average in his first three starts, including Opening Day against the Tigers, with 21 strikeouts against one walk. In consecutive starts against the Reds, Phillies and the Twins, the left-hander has yielded 17 earned runs in 11 2/3 innings with 19 strikeouts, seven walks and four home runs.

Continuing to feel strong is the most important factor for Crochet, who has never thrown more than 54 1/3 innings in a single season. His average velocity was up to 96.8 mph from 96.3 mph on the four-seamer Wednesday and his stuff was good overall.

“I feel solid. That's kind of what I've been telling Korey, [pitching coach] Ethan [Katz] and Maldy [catcher Martin Maldonado]. I feel really good, I feel really confident,” Crochet said. “I feel like my stuff's electric right now.

“I'm getting hit around and I'm kind of wondering why. So, I think that's why I have to get back to the drawing board and iron out the plan a little bit more. I feel like at times I've been pretty predictable these past couple of weeks. It's not by lack of execution. It's about my plan of attack."

Minnesota (10-13) scored four of the five runs against Crochet in the second inning, when he threw 33 of his 87 pitches. The frame started with a walk to Carlos Santana, which Crochet forcefully pointed out postgame is going to lead to runs every time, and Austin Martin doubled to put runners on second and third.

Christian Vazquez’s single to right scored the game’s first run, but it was Willie Castro’s 0-1 blast on a backfoot slider doing three runs worth of damage. Four of the six home runs given up by Crochet have come against the slider in that location.

“Coming out of the bullpen, I'd throw fastballs arm side and I'd throw sliders right there, so to get burned on that several times this year is tough,” Crochet said. “But I think I have to come to the realization that that's a bad pitch and not the spot that I want to throw it.

“It's a very easy pitch for a right-handed hitter to just drop their hands on. I need to put some work in in the bullpen on that."

An all-right-handed-hitting lineup was employed by Minnesota against Crochet, something the southpaw has faced frequently and will continue to battle. Crochet threw 12 changeups Wednesday, using that pitch to try to adapt against the lineup, and while he had success with the pitch, Crochet didn’t think it would be the difference-maker.

“The difference-maker is commanding my slider better,” Crochet said. “Having a better plan of attack with the heater and changing from in and away and not really sticking with the glove-side fastball."

“Teams are focusing on the inner half. Everything is either fastballs in, cutters in, those back-foot sliders,” Grifol said. “The changeup is going to be a big part of the game for him and he’s going to have to start making adjustments to the outer half. That’s what I saw in-game, with the human eye, but we’ve got to dig deep in there and see what’s really going on.”