The White Sox continue to monitor Garrett Crochet’s workload while he nears the final month of his first season as a major-league starter.
But they did not have Tuesday in mind.
Crochet went through his pregame routine in preparation of the series opener against the Texas Rangers at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The sky darkened as first-pitch neared and rain began while he took warmup pitches.
He threw four pitches — two balls and two strikes — to Rangers leadoff hitter Marcus Semien before players were pulled off the field for a rain delay.
The game eventually was suspended in the first inning. It resumed Wednesday afternoon after an official delay of 1 hour, 29 minutes — unofficially more than 19 hours — with Chris Flexen facing Semien and the regularly scheduled game slated to follow.
Crochet said Tuesday was “frustrating in the moment, for sure.”
“It’s one of those things you can’t control and that’s pretty much what I preach any time something out of my hands goes wrong,” Crochet said Wednesday morning. “I’m sure most of the guys in the locker room try to control what you can and everything other than that, it is what it is.”
Pitching coach Ethan Katz had given Crochet some notice that rain would be possible, but much later in the evening.
“Going into it, when I was walking out there, Katz had told me, ‘Hey, we are expecting rain at 8:30,’ ” Crochet said. “I figured my outing potentially would be over at that point. It was like, ‘OK, I’m just going to go in and do my thing until then.’ Obviously, it came a little earlier than we expected.
“I don’t think anyone around here is a weatherman, so it is what it is.”
Crochet said he didn’t notice the sky change during his pregame routine.
“It was a 7 o’clock game, and it was dark,” he said. “I didn’t even realize it’s been sunnier up to this point at that time. But I didn’t even notice. I was focused on my routine.”
And then the rain came.
“The last pitch that I threw, I didn’t have a good grip on it,” Crochet said. “Throwing in the rain is one of those things I secretly enjoy. I’m like, ‘The hitters must be miserable right now.’ But then when I didn’t have a grip on that last pitch, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m kind of miserable right now.’
“Once it started coming down, it was a little heavier than I expected. When I was going out there to start warming up, it was just a drizzle and I was like, ‘OK, we can play through this. I want to start this game. Let’s just go out there and make do with what we’ve got.’ But once it started getting a little heavier, I think there was lightning, is that why they ended up calling it? I wasn’t sure. It is what it is.”
Interim manager Grady Sizemore said the Sox plan to continue to have Crochet on his regular routine.
“Just a lighter day for him (on Tuesday),” Sizemore said. “Save his arm and he’ll be nice and fresh the next time he goes out (Sunday against the New York Mets).
“It’s unfortunate that we burned Crochet that way and don’t get to use him, but sometimes it happens. It pops up. It definitely looked pretty dark around 7, just didn’t work out for us.”
Crochet was looking forward to one of the first aspects of his post-start routine Wednesday.
“A couple guys joked, because typically Day 1 (after a start) is like a massage and soft-tissue work, and they were like, ‘You better not get a massage,’ ” Crochet said with a laugh. “But I’m getting one.”
Crochet is 6-9 with a 3.64 ERA and 180 strikeouts in 27 starts. He earned All-Star honors after making the successful move from the bullpen to the rotation. Crochet has pitched 128 2/3 innings; his previous career high was 54 1/3 in 2021.
The Sox have kept that in mind throughout the second half. He has thrown four innings or fewer in each of his last eight starts (27 1/3 innings total). He’s hoping to stay active in the final month of the season.
“For me, in the conversations I’ve had with (general manager) Chris (Getz) and the rest of the staff, it’s been (about) undergoing a typical starter’s workload in terms of getting through the entire year,” Crochet said. “I think that pitching in September is huge, just for the mindset of having truly pitched through the whole season.
“Since the All-Star break, in terms of workload, it’s dwindled down, but at the same time, I’m still going every fifth day. And I think that going every fifth day for the duration of the entire year, it’s huge.”
