Red Sox's Garrett Crochet Details Last-Minute Change Before Opening Day

Boston Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet looked just how the fanbase hoped he would on Opening Day: dominant.

Crochet picked up where he left off and pitched six shutout innings against a difficult Cincinnati Reds team. The big lefty struck out eight and allowed just three base hits across his six innings of work. It's the beginning of the season and guys are going to be worked along slowly, so Crochet threw 80 pitches, rather than closer to 100. He was surgical out there on the mound. He threw 80 pitches, 52 strikes and completely shut down a formidable offense en route to Boston's first win of the season.

There were some who were concerned throughout Spring Training. Crochet made four starts and didn't quite look like himself. He logged a 7.36 ERA across 14 2/3 innings pitched. Spring Training stats aren't always an indicator of performance in the regular season, but there were some red flags. He allowed more earned runs (12) than strikeouts (8). While the numbers don't impact the regular season, he just didn't look like himself. But that shifted on Thursday.

The Red Sox ace looked great

Mar 26, 2026; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Garrett Crochet (35) pitches against the Cincinnati Reds in the first inning at Great American Ball Park. Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images | Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

One under-the-radar reason why could be the splitter he was working on. Throughout camp, he tried to integrate a splitter into his arsenal in place of his changeup. On Thursday, he shared after the game that he went back to the changeup, instead of the splitter, as transcribed by MassLive.com's Christoper Smith.

"Today, it was like, ‘Hey, I’m banging the splitter for the year. I’ll just go back to the changeup I was throwing last year,'" Crochet said.

Well, it may not be a coincidence that Crochet looked just like he did last year when resorting back to the old arsenal. It's not like he threw it a lot last year. He used the changeup just three percent of the time in 2025.

Spring Training is a time to work on things. If he wanted to add a new pitch, he did exactly what he should have. He worked on it throughout the offseason and then brought it to game action throughout the spring. Clearly, he doesn't feel fully comfortable with it yet and he's done with it for now. Part of the reason why Spring Training stats don't necessarily matter is because of things like this. It's easy to just look at an ERA or batting average to judge a performance, but guys are getting ready for a long season and working on things in the process.

So, with all that being said, there's no need to worry about Crochet. He looked like the superstar that he is on Thursday.