Red Sox’ Garrett Crochet explains exactly what went wrong in ‘worst’ start

Red Sox starting pitcher Garrett Crochet throws against the Astros during the first inning in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)AP

Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet had his shortest start of the season on Monday, pitching just four innings in a 7-6 loss to the Astros.

“Obviously my worst one since I’ve worn the Red Sox uniform,” Crochet said. “So it’s tough. Not like there’s a good time for it ever, but it’s tough to come right now, for sure. We’ve got a lot of goals as a team right now.”

So what happened? What led to Crochet allowing five runs on seven hits? Christian Walker’s two-run double in the third inning made it 3-2 Houston. Chas McCormick’s two-run homer in the fourth that made it 5-2

“Without divulging too much, the obvious thing was I spun them a lot first time through the order,” Crochet said.

Crochet — who dropped to 13-5 with a 2.48 ERA in 24 starts — typically goes heavy with his fastball the first time through the lineup. He altered his approach slightly because of Houston’s “aggressive tendencies” that he noticed during the scouting process. So he mixed in more secondary pitches early.

“Typically I save that for second time through,” Crochet said. “But it was working pretty well. And second time through the order, then I went with my typical approach, which is spin. But I’d already done it so much throughout the game already that they were able to just be a little bit closer to pitches. They weren’t exactly hammering all of them, but it was just foul balls that ultimately forced me to come back in the zone.”

Crochet’s fastball topped out at 98.8 mph and averaged 96.9 mph, a slight increase from his 96.2 mph average fastball velocity this season.

But he threw his heater less than usual and got zero swings and misses with it. He has used his fastball 39.5% this season but went to it 31% of the time Monday.

He threw 28 cutters, 27 four-seamers, 23 sweepers, five sinkers and three changeups, per Statcast. He recorded 12 swings and misses: seven with his sweeper and five with his cutter.

“I felt like as a whole though, even the spin, the four-seams in general, I was executing well,” he said. “I kind of pegged this lineup for a team that I didn’t have to use the four-seam to — just knowing their aggression. But then after I got to two strikes, it was just continued battle from their side.”

Crochet added that he had trouble putting away hitters and getting them to put the ball in play early in counts.

“First time through the order, I felt like I was in control,” he said. “Second time through the order, they made really good adjustments. Kind of just continue to watch video and look back at it and see what it was.”

Crochet threw 71% strikes. He walked one and struck out five.

“I don’t feel like I struggled with execution outside of three pitches,” Crochet said. “Two of them were hit hard and that ultimately decided my stat line for the night.”