Fastball

Boston Red Sox' Pitcher Has Had Historic Start to 2024 Season

The Boston Red Sox lost to the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday night, but right-hander Kutter Crawford has put up some historic stats to begin the year.

Brady Farkas

May 18, 2024; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Kutter Crawford (50)
May 18, 2024; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Kutter Crawford (50) / Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
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The Boston Red Sox lost to the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday night, 7-2, to drop the first two games of the series from the National League Central team.

With the loss, Boston has now lost four straight games to fall under .500 at 22-24. After a nice start to the year, the injuries are starting to take their toll, as Boston is without shortstop Trevor Story (season), first baseman Triston Casas (60-day IL) and starting pitcher Lucas Giolito (season).

Though the team lost, it was not the fault of starting pitcher Kutter Crawford, who went 5.2 innings and surrendered just one earned run. He walked two and struck out five and now maintains an ERA of 2.17, which puts him in a great group in team history.

Per @SoxNotes on social media:

Lowest ERA by Red Sox through their first 10 starts of a season (2000-2024):

1.05 Pedro Martinez (2000)
1.60 Pedro Martinez (2001)
1.69 Josh Beckett (2011)
1.73 Clay Buchholz (2013)
2.12 Derek Lowe (2002)
2.17 KUTTER CRAWFORD (2024)

Any time that you can be on a list with Pedro Martinez, you've done something right, and Crawford certainly has this year. With new pitching coach Andrew Bailey and new Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow at the helm, Crawford has taken the next step in his career.

He's 2-2 this season and has struck out 57 batters in 58.0 innings.

In his fourth career MLB season, he's 11-17 lifetime with a 4.19 ERA.

The Red Sox and Cardinals will play again on Sunday afternoon at 1:05 p.m. ET.

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Brady Farkas

BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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