Red Sox lose in 35-degree weather at frozen Fenway: ‘We don’t complain in October’

Texas native Trevor Story didn't look too comfortable on the frozen Fenway field Tuesday. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)AP

Frozen’s Elsa quite famously noted that the cold never bothered her, anyway. The Red Sox made the same claim Tuesday night, even after a performance that suggested otherwise.

Boston’s sleepy 6-1 loss to the Blue Jays came in a game with a first pitch temperature of 35 degrees — the third coldest recorded at Fenway by Baseball Reference, which started tracking such things in the late 1990s. Ace Garrett Crochet seemed to have trouble commanding the ball in frosty conditions, as did a couple infielders who made poor throws in a sixth-inning collapse. The bats were quiet, mustering very little against starter Easton Lucas or

The Red Sox, though, weren’t making excuses.

"I went out to the mound twice and I felt it,“ said manager Alex Cora. ”It was windy, too. In the dugout, it was OK, but you go out there and it’s rough. But I’ve always said we always complain about the weather in April. We don’t in October. It is what it is and we needed to play the game."

Crochet, in his Fenway debut as a member of the Red Sox, got through five shutout innings but looked off from the start, when he needed 54 pitches to get through two innings. The trouble began in the sixth, when George Springer opened up the scoring with a solo homer, then Alex Bregman and Kristian Campbell each made errors to keep the inning alive. After Crochet departed at 107 pitches, Bo Bichette hit a two-run single off Zack Kelly that made it a 4-0 game. Crochet’s line only included one earned run but the three unearned runs and four walks left him unsatisfied after the start.

“Terrible,” Crochet said. “There really hasn’t been a start this year where I feel like I’ve had my best stuff. Hopefully, that’s because I’m building and they’re all coming later in the year.

“Not getting to the glove side very well with the four-seamer or the cutter. A lot of overcorrecting with it too, yanking and not driving it there.”

Crochet, who dominated the Orioles over eight shutout innings in his last start and owns a 1.45 ERA through three outings, said his issues Tuesday were due to his mechanics, not the weather.

“It wasn’t terrible,” he said. “The biggest part was staying warm between innings. If you do that, you’re good.

“I don’t think it really played a factor in my outing. I think I just sprayed the ball early and then was forced to come back into the count. It wears on you when you have the third time through and each batter has seen 12 pitches. It’s not a good spot to be in.”

Crochet entered the sixth inning having thrown 86 pitches and there was no one warming in the bullpen behind him. After getting two outs around Springer’s homer, Crochet looked to have the third on the grounder to Bregman, only for the error to extend the inning. Kelly hastily started warming as Crochet walked Myles Straw, then allowed Tyler Heineman to reach on the Campbell error. Another Crochet walk, to Alan Roden, spelled the end of his night.

The avalanche came fast and furious. But Cora had no regrets.

“That’s our No. 1 guy and he had an extra day (of rest),” Cora said. “We felt it was part of the lineup he could dominate. We just didn’t make two plays ... A routine error for Alex and a kid trying to make too much of one play.”

Crochet will have five days to fine-tune things before starting against his former team, the White Sox, in Chicago on Sunday afternoon. The forecast calls for warmer temperatures, at least.

“The command of the four-seam fastball hasn’t been there this early,” Crochet said. “Walks, overall, I had four today so that kind of sucks. Just still feel like I’m — not searching for it — but trying to get it to click in practice so I can bring it into the game."