The Chicago White Sox had activity in the bullpen as pitching coach Ethan Katz made a mound visit to give starter Garrett Crochet a breather.
Crochet was in a jam, as consecutive singles gave the Cleveland Guardians runners on the corners with two outs in the sixth inning Friday at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“Just taking a deep breath and making sure I didn’t give in,” Crochet said of the visit.
Crochet regrouped and threw three fastballs to Ramón Laureano to jump ahead in the count 1-2. He went to his cutter and struck out Laureano swinging.
Crochet pumped his fist as he made his way back to the dugout. It was his 11th strikeout of the game — a career high for the pitcher who made the move from reliever this season.
Crochet allowed five hits in six scoreless innings as the Sox beat the Guardians 6-3 in front of 17,319.
“I know that I’ve got good stuff and I’ve been feeling really confident with it,” Crochet said. “Just a matter of trying to get strike one, strike two and that’s why the strikeouts were able to get up tonight.”
Korey Lee, Paul DeJong and Andrew Vaughn had solo homers for the Sox (11-28), who have won five of seven.
Crochet demonstrated command from the start when he struck out Brayan Rocchio to begin the game. The left-hander struck out at least two batters in four of his six innings — including striking out the side in the second.
He briefly ran into trouble in the third when Will Brennan began the inning for the Guardians with a triple to right.
Crochet struck out Gabriel Arias and Austin Hedges, and Rocchio grounded out to third to keep the game scoreless. Crochet worked out of the tight spot in the sixth to wrap up his outing. He threw 97 pitches, 72 of which were strikes. He did not issue a walk.
“We’ve really been preaching first-pitch strikes, two out of threes (strikes) and getting leadoff outs, and I feel like I did a good job of that tonight,” Crochet said.
Crochet got run support in the fifth. Lee singled and moved to third on a Paul DeJong single. DeJong advanced to second on the throw to third.
The Guardians brought the infield in, and Nicky Lopez’s grounder got past the second baseman Arias. Both runners scored on the error.
Tommy Pham hit an RBI single to make it 3-0.
Lee and DeJong hit back-to-back homers in the seventh, giving the Sox a 5-1 lead.
José Ramírez’s two-run homer in the eighth got the Guardians within 5-3, but Vaughn answered with his first home run of the season in the bottom of the inning.
“I always give him crap that he can’t let me hit a homer by myself,” Lee said of Vaughn, his college teammate at California. “I’m happy for him. It takes a lot of weight off his shoulders, and now he can just go play free and do what Vaughny does.”
And Lee said it was “a treat” catching Crochet and seeing him do what he did.
“It’s something that I’m going to remember forever,” Lee said. “He’s one of the best pitchers I’ve caught in my life. He’s an outstanding guy, outstanding baseball player, and I couldn’t be happier for him for what he did tonight.”
