Tanner Houck explains his lot in life
It didn't take any soothsayer or analytics department to decipher that Fenway Park was going to have a little spring in its step Friday night.
The Yankees were in town. Garrett Crochet was pitching for the Red Sox. The weather was delightful. And these lead-in to weekend series always brought out a bit livelier demographic.
For a few hours, it was a tidy baseball game, flying by just fast enough for the fans' second act in and around 4 Jersey St.
What wasn't expected were the moments that unveiled themselves in those final 30 minutes. That was when Crochet, Aaron Judge and Carlos Narvaez all left indelible images for the fifth sell-out of the season.
First was Crochet.
Heading into the ninth inning, the Red Sox starter was undeniably the be-all and end-all when it came to the game's storyline. He earned the right to pitch into the ninth inning for the first time in his career thanks to eight shutout innings, that took 96 pitches to complete.
The adrenaline and drama encompassing the ballpark as Crochet sprung out of the dugout for that ninth was something usually hard to find in mid-June. Red Sox manager had tipped his hand regarding his ninth inning intentions, not even warming up closer Aroldis Chapman until there were two outs in the bottom of the eighth.
"It was a special feeling just jogging back out there and having a standing O," Crochet explained. "I could tell the fans wanted me out there. I already wanted to be out there pretty bad, but it made it a little bit more. I was able to grab a little bit of extra stuff in that inning. Wish I could have finished it out. Probably going to lose sleep over that as silly at it sounds after what I would call a good outing. It was really cool."
Crochet didn't initially disappoint, first getting Ben Rice to ground out after four pitches. That paved the way for what was supposed to be the most fitting punctuation, a fourth at-bat against Judge.
The Red Sox lefty had already struck out the game's best hitter three straight times, which was a mirror image to last Saturday when Crochet also fanned Judge in three straight at-bats. And when the count got to 3-2 on the fastest pitch of Crochet's season - a 100.2 mph fastball - a fourth punch-out was seemingly the logical result.
Instead, Judge delivered another reminder that he is one of those players kids, parents and grandparents brag they got a chance to see in person. It was one fastball too many, with the Yankees captain turning around the 99.6 mph offering and launching it 443 feet for a game-tying home run.
It was Crochet's 107th, and final, pitch. It also cemented a moment those in attendance would be talking about for years to come, no matter what transpired after Judge's trip around the bases.
"I truly believe that ... how many people were here, including you guys? Thirty-six-thousand? I think everybody (was thinking), just go ahead and see what happens," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of his decision to leave Crochet in. "That guy was really good on the mound, and the guy at the plate, he’s really good. Maybe a different situation if there are men on. Don't let him beat us. I think that's the way I see it."
"Ideally just trying to go up, letter-high. But also just trying to throw it as hard as I can," Crochet explained. "I don’t know the number but he had probably seen 14 fastballs at that time and he saw 12 six days ago. Just lack of execution there."
Crochet added, "I think when you’re at this level facing a guy like that makes you feel like you’re at one level higher. It was really special."
Ultimately what it did was introduce another hero to the evening. This one being the player who was traded to the Red Sox on the same day Boston also dealt for Crochet - Narvaez.
While the Red Sox catcher had already played a significant role in getting the Red Sox to this point by helping Crochet bob and weave his way through the Yankees line-up, it wasn't until the 10th inning Narvaez truly started separating himself.
First up was the gunning down of Yankees' ghost runner Anthony Volpe, who tried to steal third base with nobody out in the 10th. It played a key role in allowing the Red Sox to enter the home half of the frame still deadlocked.
Then came the walk-off.
With two on and two out, the righty hitter launched a 1-2 fastball from lefty Tim Hill high up on the left field wall, setting off the Red Sox' American League-lead leading seventh walk-off celebration.
"He has been a revelation," Crochet said of his catcher. "Going back to camp, I don’t really recall throwing to him more than once or twice so I wasn’t really sure going into the season. Obviously, losing Wong early was a tough blow. But he picked up a lot of the slack for us. You talk to him and you forget he’s still classified as a rookie. It’s really special. He really calls games like he has been doing it 10 years in the Show. His at-bats at the plate, late in crunch-time, he just never gives in."
This is the Red Sox first three-game win streak since the end of April. The Red Sox' pitching has started to figure it out, as was evident by the first back-to-back starts of seven innings or better at Fenway Park since Rick Porcello an Nathan Eovaldi did it in 2018. And Cora's club is now just one game away from getting back to .500 for the first time since May 24.
But it was more than all of that. There were moments. The kind of which baseball fans from both New York and Boston won't be forgetting any time soon. For that they can thank three players who painted an unforgettable picture.