CHICAGO -- White Sox manager Pedro Grifol approached Garrett Crochet after the sixth inning of Sunday’s series finale against the Rockies at Guaranteed Rate Field, and told his ace hurler there were about 10 to 12 pitches left for his afternoon’s work.

“He just smiled and said, ‘That’s enough,’” Grifol said.

It was enough for Crochet to get through the seventh on just five pitches, leaving him at 88 for start No. 18 in what turned out to be a wild, 5-4 loss for the White Sox in 14 innings. Crochet struck out 11 without issuing a walk, giving him a Major League best 141 strikeouts against only 20 free passes over 101 1/3 innings.

Crochet’s 24 whiffs tied for his top total in a single start, according to Statcast, with Crochet also finishing with 24 on June 13 at Seattle. It’s literally Crochet’s first season-long foray into starting, hence the pitch count. But he has emerged as one of the best starters, if not the best starter, in the game.

“I feel really good about it. With each start, it’s growing,” said Crochet of his confidence as a starter. “Felt good going into the game, knowing I had a pitch count. To have the quick sixth and a quick seventh definitely helped my case.”

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“The ball just explodes out of his hand,” said first baseman Andrew Vaughn, who homered and drove in three. “It's honestly fun to watch playing behind him. It's so special."

Having a pitch count doesn’t affect Crochet, basically because he doesn’t really know his exact total before he takes the mound. Crochet last pitched on June 24 against the Dodgers, so he was working Sunday with an extra day of rest.

With a team off-day Monday, Crochet should have that extra day again this coming weekend in Miami. Even if he knew the pitch count, Crochet wouldn’t change his approach.

“Every hitter I face, I have to act like it’s my last, or else I’m going to end up giving up a homer or something that I don’t want to do,” Crochet said. “I gotta make every pitch count.”

“His stuff was pretty nasty,” said Colorado switch-hitting first baseman Michael Toglia of Crochet. “I hit from the right side, and his stuff is still nasty. So he's a tough matchup."

Colorado scored two in the second off Crochet, but the White Sox (24-62) scored one in the fourth and one in the seventh to force extra innings. Both teams combined for three singles over the five extra frames, with the White Sox playing their longest game since Aug. 2, 2019, when they beat Philadelphia in 15 innings.

Michael Soroka (0-8) struck out six over four innings, pushing the staff’s strikeout total to a single-game, franchise-record 21. But ultimately, Ryan McMahon barely beat the throw home from Luis Robert Jr. on Toglia’s 14th-inning sacrifice fly to provide the game-winner.

“I haven’t even done my post-throw [routine] yet because I was sitting on the edge of my seat there watching Soroka do what he did,” Crochet said. “Everyone was kind of picking each other up. Tough one to lose, but a good one that we know we fought hard.”

“That was a battle back and forth between both sides,” Vaughn said. “Just chipping away and in the end, they held us out."

This extra-inning setback ended the White Sox winning streak at three straight. Crochet, meanwhile, closed June with a 5-2 record, a 1.63 ERA, .181 opponents' average, 12 walks and 101 strikeouts over his last 12 starts covering 71 2/3 innings, and lowered his ERA from 6.37 to 3.02.

Postgame conversation eventually moved to the big left-hander being at the center of trade talks for the rebuilding White Sox, with two years of contractual control remaining following his $800,000 salary for ‘24, but also with an innings watch for the remainder of the campaign.

While he “definitely” would like to be a major part of the team’s move from rebuild to resurgence, Crochet isn’t letting that talk mess with his work.

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“I’m just focused on doing exactly what I'm doing right now: Taking the ball here for the White Sox,” Crochet said. “Other than that, I don’t really think about it.”

“Just the fact that he throws that many strikes and is able to command the strike zone, strike people out and economize pitches,” Grifol said. “You find me somebody who can do that other than a couple [of other pitchers]. I don’t think there’s a handful of guys who can.”