With latest pitching gem, Red Sox 'squeak out' series win over Mariners

Gabrielle Starr, Boston Herald on Jun 18, 2025

Published in Baseball

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The Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners motored through Wednesday’s rubber match in Seattle.

It took Boston just two hours and 14 minutes to complete a 3-1 victory for their fourth consecutive series win.

“I’ve been saying all along, if we pitch, we’re gonna have a shot,” Alex Cora, who moved into a tie with Pinky Higgins for third-most wins in Red Sox managerial history, told reporters.

Walker Buehler’s early implosion in Tuesday night’s loss had snapped Boston’s streak of quality starts, but Garrett Crochet began anew. After issuing five walks on 110 pitches when he faced the Mariners at Fenway on April 24, Boston’s new ace was unyielding in Wednesday’s finale: he held the home team to one earned run on six hits and struck out eight in his six innings. He threw 96 pitches, 70 for strikes.

“I was grinding through the first couple innings, didn’t really have the four-seam, so just ultimately pivoted and rode the cutter pretty hard, and was able to have some weak contact with it,” Crochet told reporters.

Without Crochet’s fastball not playing the way he wanted, the second inning was a long one. Randy Arozarena led off with a first-pitch double on a four-seamer, who advanced to third on a Mitch Garver flyout and scored the Mariners’ only run on a wild pitch. Donovan Solano and Ben Williamson followed with back-to-back singles before Crochet was able to get a force out and strikeout-looking to escape the jam.

“They always talk about the 10 days that you have your best stuff, 10 days that you got average, and 10 days you got your worst, so it’s like 20 starts out of the year you just got to find a way,” Crochet said. “And today was one of those days.”

The Sox southpaw followed with a 1-2-3 third, using his cutter and changeup to shut down each batter. Between the fourth and sixth innings, he used his sweeper for the put-away pitch on all but one out.

“That’s why he got paid the big bucks,” Cora said of his starter. “He’s an ace. He understands what comes with the territory, not only on the field but off the field. One of the leaders in the clubhouse, you know, and every five days (when he starts) is a special day for us.”

Mariners starter Luis Castillo also gave his team six innings, walked two and struck out five. The righty held the Red Sox to three hits, but two were home runs. Rookie infielder Marcelo Mayer went yard on the first pitch of the second inning, and Trevor Story retook the lead with a two-run blast to left-center in the fourth (scoring Mayer, who’d drawn a walk).

“That was a great swing by Trevor,” Cora lauded. After an ice-cold stretch, the veteran shortstop is having a scorching June: through 16 games he’s hitting .283 with a 8.28 OPS, four doubles, three homers and 15 RBI.

Boston’s only other hit in the contest was a single by Connor Wong. The struggling catcher has 10 hits on the season, none for extra bases.

The Red Sox went 1-2-3 in the fifth, seventh, eighth and ninth, interrupted only by Roman Anthony’s walk and first career stolen base in the sixth. Boston did have several well-struck balls land where they shouldn’t, including a fifth-inning lineout from the slumping Jarren Duran, at 115.2 mph, it was the hardest-hit ball of the contest.

It’s been a low-production stretch in general; after putting up at least six runs in six of seven games between June 2-9 – including three double-digit games between June 4-8, Boston has scored no more than four runs in each of the subsequent eight games.

Cora threw a curveball of his own with his bullpen order. Garrett Whitlock pitched a perfect seventh inning, so it was surprising to see closer Aroldis Chapman take the mound in the eighth. The veteran closer hadn’t pitched earlier than the ninth inning since April 21, but he got the Mariners in order, too.

Greg Weissert’s ninth inning began on shaky footing when he had difficulty locating his four-seamer and issued a one-out walk to Arozarena, but he was able to slam the door by getting pinch-hitter Dominic Canzone to ground into a double play.

“He’s been huge,” Crochet said of Weissert. “Even before (Justin Slaten) went down, he was starting to creep into those leverage spots … It’s been what we kind of expected out of him, quite frankly.”

The Boston bullpen pitched 10 2/3 scoreless innings over the series.

“Everybody’s got a job to do,” Weissert told NESN’s Jahmai Webster. “As tough as it was trading Raffy (Devers), I think we all kind of banded together and just trying to squeak out wins here.”

“The momentum was building for a while, and I think that this past week, it’s really started to bubble over the top,” said Crochet said. “I think that right now we’re playing the kind of baseball that we need to play.”

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