White Sox pitcher Garrett Crochet delivers to a Kansas City Royals batter during the first inning of a baseball game in Kansas City, Mo., Sunday, April 7, 2024. (AP)
Colin E. Braley/AP Photos
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It was a good time for Garrett Crochet to call it a day after five innings.
It was a good time for the emerging ace of the staff to vent.
“We need to turn the corner soon,” Crochet said. “Everybody has some evaluating to do, myself included.”
The White Sox are not hitting and they didn’t play a clean game in Sunday’s 5-3 loss dropping them to 1-8.
“If everybody kind of pulls together and can look introspectively, we’ll be able to get out of this,” Crochet said. “But we need to turn it on soon.”
Crochet, who didn’t allow a hit in his first four innings, gave up a two-run homer in the fifth and was pulled after the inning with 77 pitches logged. His workload will be monitored as he starts for the first time in his professional career, and with a 3-2 lead and his heaviest inning of work just completed, manager Pedro Grifol went to his bullpen.
“He went six innings the first time out, seven innings the second time out and I wasn’t going to push him past 77 pitches today, I just wasn’t going to do it,” Grifol said.
The Sox have lost eight of their first nine games for second time in franchise history, following their 0-10 start in 1968.
Crochet, who has been outstanding with a 2.00 ERA, 21 strikeouts and only one walk, didn’t have his best fastball command, and was unhappy about not delivering a shutdown inning after the Sox, desperately needing a victory, scored two in the fifth to take a 3-0 lead.
“Guys are starting to realize we are not playing good enough ball and I think that guys are starting to get [ticked],” Crochet said.
Which can be a good thing, Crochet said.
“Getting [ticked off] shows passion, and this is a game you have to play with passion. It’s a long season so you have to fun with your teammates. You have to play the game hard. Getting [ticked] is normally the turning point for me as a pitcher. … I think it can be useful for us [as a team].”
Jimenez, Brebbia updates
Eloy Jimenez did some running Sunday and said he felt good as he works his way back from an adductor strain. Jimenez could return as soon as Friday when the Sox open a home stand against the Reds.
“We’ll see. It’s day to day,” Grifol said. “Day to day means we have to wait until after a day is over, he has to get a night’s rest and then he’s got to come in and see how he feels. If he continues to improve, then it should be sometime in the next week. If not, we’ll readjust.”
Brebbia had a recurrence of his right calf strain suffered during spring training and could go on in the IL.
Eclipse!
The Sox are guests of the Cleveland Guardians for their home opener Monday, for which the starting time was changed weeks ago to 4:10 p.m. Eastern time to work around the full solar eclipse. Cleveland falls in the eclipse’s path for totality.
The eclipse begins at 2:13:46 CT, maximizes at 2:15:41 and ends at 2:17:35. Because of the sun’s location and structure of Progressive Field, it won’t be visible inside much of the ballpark, so fans will be allowed to exit and re-enter.
The Sox are taking batting practice early, before the field is off limits for a two-hour period around the eclipse.