In his first ever postseason appearance for the Boston Red Sox, starting pitcher and staff ace Garrett Grochet tied a team record that had stood unequalled and unbroken for 122 years.
One has to go all the way to 1903, and the debut of the immaculately-coiffured Bill Dinneen, to find a pitcher who struck out more than nine opposing hitters in their first playoff game as a member of the Red Sox. Dinneen did it 122 years ago, and no one else had done it since – until Crochet did so tonight.
In the first game of their Wild Card series against the fierce rivals, the New York Yankees, Grochet led from the front. A solo home run from embattled Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe was the only blot in the copybook of an excellent night at the plate, in which Crochet took home the win, recording 11 strikeouts along the way, tying Dinneen’s century-old record.
Tremendous Game One Performance
Across 7.2 innings, Crochet gave up only four hits including the home run to Volpe, along with no walks. He threw 117 pitches, 78 of which were strikes, and was every bit the big game workhorse that he was brought in to be.
Crochet was embroiled in a proper pitcher’s duel with Yankees starter, Max Fried, who left the game with the lead after 6.1 innings having not given up a single run. However, a two-run single for Masataka Yoshida – pinch-hitting for Rob Refsnyder in the top half of the seventh inning – saw the Sox take a lead they would not lose. An insurance run in the top of the ninth following a double by Alex Bregman gave Aroldis Chapman – the only reliever to work the game – a margin he would just about hold onto, despite loading the bases with nobody out in the ninth.
The star of the piece, though, was Crochet. He was acquired by the Red Sox from the Chicago White Sox as their marquee trade acquisition of the summer, precisely to be on call for the big occasions like this. And he delivered.
Crochet’s Value To The Sox
This record-tying outing was the kind of performance that was both needed and increasingly expected of Crochet, who has been one of the best pitchers in the American League all season. The big lefty started 32 games in a healthy first season with the Sox, and pitched to an excellent 2.59 ERA across 205.1 innings in that time, recording 255 strikeouts.
Although he chose not to pitch in it to allow for rest and preparation for the second half of the season, Crochet received his second All-Star Game nod in 2025, and was arguably even better in the second half of the regular season. That decision to save some innings for the postseason paid dividends against the Yankees, the favored team heading into the series who will now have to come from behind, unsafe in the knowledge that their bullpen issues persist.
A different 11-K outing by Dinneen would also set what was at the time a record for the most strikeouts ever recorded in a World Series game. The Red Sox will sorely be hoping that Crochet will get a chance to tie that total, too.
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