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 the cutter more.
So yeah, he’s a complete pitcher.” Cora said he doesn’t “get caught up on stats and all that.” “But I look up and the ERA is down and the WHIP is down,” he said.
“For everything we’ve been talking about ( with) Tanner (Houck making the All-Star team ), Kutter has been there, too. Just posting every five days and giving us a chance to win.” Crawford has a 3.
04 ERA and 1.03 WHIP in 19 starts. Cora sent Crawford back out for the eighth and he gave up a leadoff single to Maikel Garcia.
Cora would have kept him in for two batters if he had retired Garcia. He didn’t plan for him to go beyond those two hitters. “I felt he could have the first two (batters), but then after that, we were going to run into bad matchups,” Cora said.
Zack Kelly replaced Crawford and recorded the final six outs. Crawford’s 7 innings matches a career high. He has done it three times this year, including in back-to-back starts.
He has allowed just one run over his past three starts (20 innings). He said he has recently focused on the mental side, including his approach and confidence. “I try to go out there and challenge myself, trying to see how many competitive strikes I can throw,” Crawford said.
“And after the last three, it feels good to be able to attack the zone and fill it up one after another.” The righty’s most important inning was the fourth. He recorded a shutdown inning vs.
the middle of the Royals lineup in the top of the fourth after Boston scored three runs in the bottom of the third inning to jump ahead 4-0. The righty got No. 3 hitter Vinnie Pasquantino to ground out to second base, cleanup hitter Salvador Perez to strike out swinging and No.
5 hitter Hunter Renfroe to ground out to second base. Crawford received a standing ovation as he walked off in the eighth. “It was awesome,” Crawford said.
“Any time you can have a performance like that in front of the Red Sox faithful on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, it’s a great feeling. It almost feels like you’re on cloud nine. Just try to soak it all in.
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