ARLINGTON, Texas — Chicago White Sox starter Garrett Crochet didn’t have any expectations when he made it to Texas last week for All-Star festivities.
“I just enjoyed being around guys of All-Star caliber,” the left-hander said Friday in Kansas City, Mo. “It was a cool experience in that regard. Getting to spend time and kind of talk shop with those guys.”
Crochet pitched a scoreless inning for the American League, allowing one hit and striking out one. He’ll be back at the site of the All-Star Game on Tuesday for his first start since the break against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field.
Last week Crochet had the chance to catch up with former Sox pitcher Chris Sale, an All-Star this season with the Atlanta Braves.
“That was cool,” Crochet said. “It was cool, too, because it was like I didn’t have to make the first move. Otherwise I probably would have never met him. I just thought it was cool of him to recognize me and come over and say what’s up.
“Just talking about the transition from the pen to starting. Asking how I’m feeling and just telling me to keep going.”
He found those types of conversations validating.
“I think that’s why I enjoyed it so much,” he said. “Guys of that caliber, just getting to talk about how you sequence, do you use your stuff, that sort of thing.”
And he was thrilled to get to share it all with his family.
“I think they enjoyed it a lot,” Crochet said. “That made it even more special. They were having a good time and they got to experience the special treatment of it all. That was cool.”
As for the inning of action, Crochet had a simple goal.
“I was still trying not to look like a dumbass and make a fool of myself out there,” he said. “I was still just trying to get three outs.”
Crochet entered in the fourth and got Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich to ground out to third. After surrendering a single to Alec Bohm of the Philadelphia Phillies, Crochet struck out Home Run Derby champion Teoscar Hernández of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
He wrapped up the inning by getting Jurickson Profar of the San Diego Padres to ground out to shortstop.
“Glad he got in, glad he pitched well, glad he got that experience,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “He definitely deserved it. He earned it.”
Crochet leads the American League in strikeouts (150) through Sunday and ranks 10th in ERA (3.02). The impressive transition from reliever to starter has led to his name being mentioned in plenty of speculation ahead of the July 30 trade deadline.
Crochet has pitched 107⅓ innings this season, well above his previous career high of 54⅓ in 2021. The Sox limited him to two innings in his final start before the All-Star break on July 12 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He struck out four of the six batters he faced.
That set him up for the extended time off — not including the All-Star Game. Coming out of the break, Grifol said the initial plan would not be similar in terms of short starts.
“He’ll gradually start to dwindle down,” Grifol said. “How aggressive we get, we have things mapped out, but we really haven’t dug our heels into it.
“But it’s definitely going to start dwindling down. The workload is going to start dwindling down.”
Crochet said he feels “really good” physically.
“I feel like I could have thrown today if need be,” he said Friday. “My recovery has been great throughout the year. And just the upkeep I’ve been doing with my body has allowed me to recover fairly quickly from start to start, outing to outing.”
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