Celebrate the good times: Reliever-turned-ace Crochet stops White Sox losing streak at 14

One look at Friday’s starting pitchers led to an easy conclusion:

This better be the night the White Sox end their 14-game losing streak.

They may never get a better chance than having their reliever-turned-ace Garrett Crochet on the mound against Boston.

Crochet made a couple fielding blunders in the third inning that led to 2 runs, but he got the job done and the White Sox finally ended the streak with a 7-2 victory at Guaranteed Rate Field.

After the game loud cheering could be heard from the clubhouse before and after reporters were allowed inside.

“This has been a hard couple of weeks,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “You can hear them in there. They're getting after it every day and I'm proud of these guys for that.”

While Crochet struck out 10 over 6 innings, rookie Jonathan Cannon recorded a three-inning save and the bats came alive. Luis Robert, Gavin Sheets and Andrew Vaughn homered, while Paul DeJong and Oscar Colas each had 2 RBI.

The fans even got involved, but not in a good way. The game was delayed for several minutes during the fourth inning because of a disturbance near the home dugout.

“I was on deck and heard a loud thud and looked down and there was a little shot glass or something sitting out in front of me,” Vaughn said. “It was one of those little tiny drinks. I didn't expect it, but it must have come from the top deck because it was pretty loud when it hit the ground.”

A White Sox spokesperson said three plastic, travel-sized bottles were thrown toward the field and no one was hurt. That doesn't necessarily mean no one was hit.

Players and staff members stood in the dugout looking into the crowd, but there wasn't much activity in the seats near the dugout, which could support Vaughn's upper deck theory.

The delay was long enough that Red Sox pitcher Cooper Criswell took a few warm-up tosses. When play resumed, the White Sox erupted for 3 runs to take a 4-2 lead.

After knocking in the tying run, then scoring himself, DeJong did an interview with NBC Sports Chicago when he returned to the dugout and said it was “Some flying full bottles of liquor” that caused the delay.

Fortunately, that seemed to be the end of the disturbances and attention could focus on Crochet. The team's first-round draft pick in 2020 was strictly a reliever during his first three seasons with the Sox, asked to be a starter and has delivered impressive results on a struggling team.

“For me personally, I already have so many expectations of myself,” Crochet said. “So in a moment like this, I like to think that I thrive in it. And that's kind of how I felt after the throwing error as well. I've always, at least in my mind, considered myself someone who responds well to adversity. So when that happened, I was just trying to bear down.”

Crochet appeared to strike out Boston's Jarren Duran on a checked swing in the third inning, but the third base umpire didn't agree. A few pitches later, Duran tapped a grounder to the mound and Crochet threw it past first base into foul territory. The White Sox then tried to appeal that Duran missed first base, but Crochet delivered another errant toss to first while Duran stole home to put Boston up 2-1. But the Red Sox didn't score again.

Asked about Crochet's performance, Vaughn thought back to meeting him at the team's Schaumburg alternate site during the pandemic.

“I remember when we first got him to Schaumburg right after he was drafted and first pitch he threw in the bullpen was 102 miles an hour and everybody was like, 'Yep, he's going to the big leagues,'” Vaughn said. “A couple weeks later, he was up there. To see him do this now was awesome.”

Cannon, who was called up from Charlotte earlier in the day, had been strictly a starter during his career, including three big-league starts in April. But Grifol showed plenty of confidence by sending Cannon to the mound in the seventh.

“He pounds the strike zone and he's fearless,” Grifol said.

Cannon had one previous relief appearance in pro ball — one inning for the rookie league squad in 2022.

“I joked before the game when they were asking if I had relieved before,” Cannon said. “I was like, 'Same thing as starting, just don't get to warm up on the field before the game.' I just went out there and was going to go until the told me to stop.”

Twitter: @McGrawDHSports