TORONTO — No one needed to tell Chicago White Sox starter Garrett Crochet what was going on as the zeroes kept piling up Tuesday against the Toronto Blue Jays.
The left-hander retired the first 13 batters before Justin Turner collected Toronto’s first hit with a one-out double in the fifth inning.
“From the first batter on, I’m pretty aware of it,” Crochet said. “In about the third inning, I was trying to get myself to stop thinking about it. And then I probably forgot about it going into the fifth inning, and then I gave up the hit.”
Crochet surrendered two hits in six innings as the Sox beat the Blue Jays 5-0 in front of 28,176 at Rogers Centre.
Crochet had four strikeouts and one walk, improving to 5-4.
“I felt like I was pretty in command the whole day,” Crochet said. “Not a lot of chase out of this team. It was kind of just attack and live in the zone. I let myself down a little bit with the strike percentage, but another good one, another win. Happy about it.”
The Sox (15-34) snapped a four-game losing streak. But they finished the game without designated hitter Eloy Jiménez, who exited early with a left hamstring strain.
Jiménez sustained the injury while scoring from second on a two-run single by Corey Julks in the fifth inning.
“We won’t know more until (Wednesday), you’ve got to see how he wakes up,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “They did the tests, the tests weren’t bad, but it’s going to take him out of action for at least the next couple of days.
“I say a couple of days because we have to see how he feels in the morning and we have to see how he continues to get evaluated. We’ll see. It could be longer, who knows? We’ll know by (Wednesday).”
Jiménez had two hits before exiting. Danny Mendick also had two hits, including a two-run double in the eighth, as the Sox won at Rogers Centre for the first time since Aug. 26, 2021.
Crochet set the tone, with plenty of support from the defense.
Zach Remillard made a nice running catch in left field for the final out of the third.
Shortstop Paul DeJong made an accurate throw on the run to get Davis Schneider for the first out of the fourth. Danny Jansen then hit a liner to third, which Mendick snagged for the second out of the inning.
The nice defense continued after the first hit when center fielder Tommy Pham tracked down an Isiah Kiner-Falefa flyball to begin the sixth.
Crochet called the defense “phenomenal.”
“There probably should have been more than two hits there,” Crochet said.
Crochet extended his scoreless streak to 19 innings.
“He’s learning how to read bats, he’s learning how to make adjustments to when they make adjustments to him,” Grifol said. “Him and (catcher) Korey (Lee), they did really good today.”
Nick Nastrini to start Wednesday
Nick Nastrini will rejoin the Sox from Triple-A Charlotte and start Wednesday’s series finale, Grifol said.
Mike Clevinger, who was originally in line for Wednesday, will start Thursday against the Baltimore Orioles at Guaranteed Rate Field.
