Red Sox playing the long game by pushing Crochet's start back

MINNEAPOLIS -- With the expectation of playing big games for the rest of the regular season and even more important ones in October, the Red Sox are playing the long game with Garrett Crochet when possible.

Manager Alex Cora announced on Wednesday that the lefty ace’s next scheduled start will be pushed back a few days.

Crochet turned in his latest dominant performance against the Dodgers on July 26, striking out 10 over six innings.

It was expected that his next turn would come on Friday night against the Astros, giving him five days of rest between outings thanks to the team’s off-day on Thursday.

Instead, Cora, in consultation with the front office and the team’s training staff, added some extra days.

“We’re going to push back Garrett to either Monday or Tuesday [against the Royals],” said Cora. “This is something we've been talking about for a while here, kind of like, give him a breather. So we’ll do that.”

The Red Sox haven’t named a starter yet for Friday. Walker Buehler will take the mound on Saturday and Lucas Giolito on Sunday.

At 141 1/3 innings, Crochet is closing in on the career high of 146 that he set in his first season as a starter last season.

“Just talking about it, we just kind of viewed this as a good time to kind of catch my breath a little bit,” said Crochet. “Not really a deload, but a little bit in that sense. I kind of knew throughout the season that we would try to find that rest for me, if we could. I like a five-day [routine], but I appreciate the front office and the managerial staff and everybody looking out for me.”

Could there be more breaks like this for Crochet down the stretch?

“I’m not sure, honestly,” said Crochet. “I think realistically, it kind of depends as we get into August and September what we're looking like as far as the postseason picture. But before we kind of really get in the heat of August and September while off days are still packed in and we’re still kind of able to do this without throwing everyone else off schedule … I feel like if you’re benefitting any player on the team, it benefits the whole team.”

The Red Sox are thrilled with the way Crochet has performed and held up physically. In 22 starts, he is 12-4 with a 2.23 ERA and 175 strikeouts.

“It’s huge,” said Cora. “He’s posted. He's done an outstanding job. There was one outing [in May against the Mets] that we planned accordingly, a short one. The other ones have been a full go. That’s the thing, he would actually rather be a full go instead of 80 pitches in one outing. We talked about it as a group, and we brought it up during the week, and this is why we're going to execute it.”