The Boston Red Sox have gotten off to a brutal start this season as they are tied for last place in the American League East. While Red Sox apologists may use the hackneyed defense “that it’s still early,” there’s little else for the Red Sox to grasp at this point. They dropped a 6-2 decision to the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park Sunday with their ace Garrett Crochet on the mound and they have an 8-13 record.

Crochet was brilliant in the 2025 season for the Red Sox, his first with the team. He finished second in Cy Young voting and led the American League with 255 strikeouts. If there was one area of the team that the Red Sox thought they could count on this season, it was their starting pitching. If there was one starting pitcher they thought they could believe in, it was Crochet.

It has been something of a nightmarish start to the season for Crochet. He was brutalized by the Minnesota Twins in his start last Monday as he was knocked out of the box in the second inning in a 13-6 defeat, and he was determined to come through with a bounce-back effort for the Red Sox in Sunday’s start against the Tigers. No such luck for Crochet as he gave up 7 hits, 2 home runs and 5 earned runs in 5.0 innings.

Crochet had tried to explain his earlier troubles by saying his pitches had become predictable, but he changed his opinion after Sunday’s performance.

“To be honest, I don’t even know if that was ever really the issue,” Crochet said, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. “I think that was more of what I thought was the issue. Right now, it’s that every mistake I make is getting absolutely hammered. It’s because there are mistakes when I’m behind in the count.”