The tarp covered the infield at Guaranteed Rate Field as rain fell during a pause in the seventh inning of Monday’s Chicago White Sox game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The 30-minute delay came at the perfect time for Sox starter Garrett Crochet.
After another splendid night on the mound, pitching 5 2/3 scoreless innings, Crochet had the opportunity to check in on the Men’s College World Series.
He had a rooting interest, having played baseball for Tennessee.
“When I came in (the clubhouse), I checked my phone, saw they were able to finish it out, which was nice,” Crochet said Monday night.
The Volunteers won their first national championship in baseball Monday, defeating Texas A&M 6-5 in Game 3 in Omaha, Neb.
“Very cool,” Crochet said. “Very happy for (coach Tony) Vitello and the guys over there.”
Crochet pitched for Tennessee from 2018-20. That connection remains strong.
“I have a lot of ties there,” he said. “Those were the first guys to give me a shot and put some belief in me and helped started building the foundation of confidence for me.
“I’ll always have a lot of respect and admiration for those guys and always cheer them on.”
Tennessee left-hander Garrett Crochet delivers during a game in Knoxville, Tenn. (Calvin Mattheis / AP)
The Sox selected the left-hander with the No. 11 pick in the 2020 draft. Shortly after that draft, Vitello spoke to the Tribune in a phone interview and described Crochet as “a kid that wants the ball and wants to be the guy in crunch time.”
That has indeed been the case at the big-league level.
Crochet has put up All-Star-caliber numbers — and drawn reported trade interest — after moving from the bullpen to the rotation this season. He’s 6-6 with a 3.05 ERA in 17 starts and entered Tuesday leading the American League with 130 strikeouts.
He’s just the second major-league pitcher since at least 1901 to record 130-plus strikeouts with 20 walks or fewer (20) over his first 17 career starts, joining Masahiro Tanaka of the New York Yankees in 2014 (130 strikeouts, 18 walks).
Crochet is 5-2 with a 1.53 ERA, .179 opponents average, 12 walks and 90 strikeouts over his last 11 starts. He struck out six Monday, including Shohei Ohtani twice, and allowed five hits but did not factor in the decision in the 3-0 loss.
“I felt like I was commanding my stuff pretty well,” Crochet said. “I mixed in more sliders and changeups than I probably have in the past three outings, so it was good having the whole mix rolling.”
Crochet exited after 91 pitches as the Sox monitor his usage.
“I think that I could throw 130 pitches and be cool,” he said. “But with where the innings are at, I definitely understand where everybody’s coming from, trying to monitor things.
“But every game matters, so I want to pitch every game like it’s going to be my last. I don’t really want to take my foot off the gas for a second. But I understand.”
Crochet has pitched 94 1/3 innings this season, far surpassing his previous high of 54 1/3 as a reliever in 2021.
“That’s the reasoning why the (June 19) game (against the Houston Astros), he threw 85 pitches in six innings, and yesterday I took him out with two outs in the sixth on (91) pitches,” manager Pedro Grifol said before Tuesday’s game. “There’s a plan in place.
“I’m not going to post that plan for everybody to see it because there’s nothing black and white in this game. Everything’s always gray and you can always make adjustments. It all depends on the stress he’s going through every inning. But it’s in place. We’re going to start dwindling his workload down a little bit, and we’ll manage that correctly.”
Regardless of the length of the appearance, Crochet enjoyed the test the National League West-leading Dodgers provided.
“You look forward to every matchup,” he said. “Every game counts, every game matters. So it’s not like I’m taking the other ones for granted. But a game like this, you definitely go into it with a little extra fire and determination.”
Monday was the continuation of a process that his time at Tennessee aided.
“It was the camaraderie,” Crochet said. “Here, we spend more time with each other than we do with our families, but there, I don’t think we spent a second away from each other.
“You go back to the dorm, those are the guys you’re living with. You go back to your apartment and you’re texting those guys immediately asking to hang out. It was a different level of camaraderie. It’s memories I cherish.”
