Garrett Crochet deals in White Sox extra-innings win vs. Mariners

Chicago’s budding young ace blew the Mariners away again and again at T-Mobile Park, putting down yet another dominant effort with an absolute barrage of fastballs, as the White Sox ended their series in the Pacific Northwest with a 3-2 win in 10 innings.

Crochet’s first 55 pitches were either four-seam fastballs or cutters. That streak ended when he threw an 0-1 changeup to Tyler Locklear with one out in the bottom of the fifth — which Locklear promptly hit out of the park.

After that, Crochet returned to the hard stuff, firing 46 fastballs to end his night.

In his own words, it was a “see if you can hit it” game. And the Mariners couldn’t.

The southpaw threw 102 pitches — 71 four-seamers, 30 cutters and one changeup. That’s the highest ratio of fastballs to non-fastballs in an outing (minimum 100 pitches) since John Lackey threw 113 fastballs and nothing else on Sept. 19, 2013, and the fifth-highest ratio in the pitch tracking era (since 2008).

“A lot of conviction behind the fastball and behind the cutter,” Crochet said. “It worked well.”

The velocity overload worked perfectly, with Crochet setting a career-high with 13 strikeouts. That brings his season total to 116, matching Tyler Glasnow for the MLB lead. He tossed seven innings and allowed just one hit aside from the homer.

“If he can locate his spots on those two powerful pitches, it’s really, really hard to hit,” catcher Korey Lee said.

Crochet also set a high for whiffs, logging 24 on the night for a whiff rate of 50%.

The lefty, who has established himself as a breakout star in his first season as a starter, has leaned into his one-two punch of hard stuff lately. In three starts since the calendar turned to June, Crochet has fired 296 pitches, of which only 15 have been non-fastballs.

If that pattern holds through the end of June, Crochet is set to have the highest fastball percentage in a single month by a starter in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008), with 95% of his pitches being either four-seam fastballs or cutters.

“What I like about him is that he’s got four pitches that he can use, and there have been games where he’s executed all four pitches,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “But now he’s starting to learn as a starter that he doesn’t have to overthink this. And if something’s working and … you’re getting through seven innings with just two out of the four pitches, then why overthink this thing?”

At the moment, the two-pitch combo is all Crochet needs. In his three June outings, he’s logged 31 strikeouts — which leads the league by a wide margin — and boasts a 1.079 WHIP and 1.42 ERA.

On Thursday, keeping things simple also meant extending his outing. After needing 65 pitches to get through the first five innings, Crochet ran into a rough spot in the sixth with back-to-back walks to lead off the frame. He battled back to get out of it unscathed, but on 92 pitches, he found another battle waiting for him in the dugout in the form of his manager.

“I saw the look in his eyes,” Crochet said. “I begged him to go batter-to-batter, and I’m thankful that he let me and had faith in me.”

Grifol gave way but under no uncertain terms.

“He knew he had maybe, maybe 10 pitches, 12 pitches, but I wasn’t going to play around too much with him,” the Chicago skipper said. “I told him, ‘I want you to go back out, and I know you’re strong, but you better execute this thing quickly, because if not, I’m coming to get you.'”

Crochet only needed 10, striking out Mitch Haniger to set a new career high, adding to his total with a K on Locklear in revenge for the home run, and getting Victor Robles to fly out on the first pitch.

He did it with his two faithful weapons — five four-seamers and five cutters — setting the White Sox up to end their time in Seattle on a winning note.

“He’s our stopper,” Grifol said. “It seems like every time we’re on a little streak, he comes through for us.”