BOSTON — Red Sox starter Kutter Crawford has gone 48 straight outs without allowing a run. How about that kind of dominant stretch heading into the All-Star break? “It’s eye opening,” manager Alex Cora said. “But it’s a testament of the hard work he put in, in the offseason.
Buying into the concept of throwing quality strikes. Get ahead, stay ahead.” Crawford gave up just two hits and one walk while striking out four over 7-plus scoreless innings in a 5-0 win over the Royals on Saturday here at Fenway Park .
He threw 76 of his 96 pitches for strikes — or 79.2% strikes. That’s the highest strike percentage by a starter this season, according to Red Sox Stats on X.
How would Crawford describe this scoreless stretch after his manager called it “eye opening?” “Pretty cool. Pretty cool, yeah,” Crawford said. The 28-year-old righty technically has gone 15 straight innings without giving up a run but he has recorded 48 straight outs (16 innings worth of outs).
He allowed a homer to lead off the fifth inning against the Marlins on July 2, then recorded six outs through the fifth and sixth innings without giving up a run. He followed it with 7 scoreless innings at New York against the Yankees last Sunday and 7 scoreless frames here against the Royals. “His ball moves everywhere,” Cora said.
“His four-seamer, cutter, curveball, the split, the sweeper. As far as like weapons, he has a lot of them. And any day he can go attack with the four-seamer or use t.