CHICAGO — The 18,840 fans on hand at Rate Field were all on the edge of their seats as Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet chased history and carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning Sunday. It’s hard to envision any of them were more nervous than the man tasked with making the decision on when Crochet’s day would end.

Alex Cora, who in 989 games as Boston’s manager, has never seen a no-hitter. Crochet, who got through 7 ⅓ innings with any damage Sunday, came closer than any other starting pitcher during Cora’s tenure. As Red Sox Nation watched Crochet pursue the club’s first no-no since Jon Lester in 2008, Cora knew one way the day’s story could end would involve him being the villain.

So when Chase Meidroth — coincidentally one of four players the Red Sox traded to the White Sox for Crochet in December — singled on Crochet’s 96th pitch of the day, Cora breathed a massive sigh of relief.

“Honestly, I’ve never been so happy for the opponent to get a hit,” Cora said.

Cora seemed to be on the mound to take the ball from Crochet before Jarren Duran had even thrown the ball back in after retrieving Meidroth’s single. It was time for Garrett Whitlock to try to preserve a 2-0 lead and help the Red Sox escape the South Side with at least one win. Cora had promised Crochet that he’d let him keep going until a ball fell in. But that promise was getting close to being broken as Crochet’s pitch count climbed into the mid-nineties.

“You’ve got to make decisions. It’s not easy, man,” said Cora. “You’re in that dugout and you’ve got a chance to do something special. But at the same time, you have to balance our season. Without him, it’s going to be hard.

“He kept saying he was feeling good but, still, you have to put everything in perspective. That’s the hard part of this job.”

Crochet has thrown 102 and 107 pitches in his last two starts, respectfully, but it would have been hard to imagine Cora letting Boston’s new ace climbing into the 120 range in his fourth start of an 162-game season. If Meidroth had not singled, Crochet would have likely entered the ninth in triple digits. And though he said he felt good enough to go “five more innings,” he understood a tough conversation with Cora might have been coming.

“My workload has been pretty high the last couple outings but I felt good today, so I was ready to keep going,” Crochet said.

Meidroth’s well-placed single past the dive of Trevor Story made the decision easy for Cora and once the Red Sox held on to win, 3-1, the team was ready to celebrate a stellar pitching performance with no controversy attached to the proceedings. Crochet lowered his ERA to 1.38 on a day he struck out 11, walked one batter and allowed just one particularly meaningful hit.

“I was feeling pretty good,” he said. “Sadly, I was very aware of the no-hitter since the first inning, or the first batter. That’s just who I am, I suppose. A blessing and a curse.

“Competing in the zone, I feel like I was doing a good job of that today. Finally stopped thinking about strikeouts and got a couple, so that was nice.”

Crochet’s phenomenal performance came under unique circumstances. Sunday represented the first time he faced his former team and his first time pitching at Rate Field as a visiting player. Throughout the weekend, the lefty repeatedly said that he wasn’t making too much of the start and that while he was appreciative for his five seasons with the White Sox, it was not hard to move on. He wasn’t overly amped up when the lights came on Sunday afternoon but still put on a show for a crowd that gave him an ovation as he departed in the eighth.

“I’m sure there’s a little something extra there. But he’s always got that in him,” Story said. “He’s always revving on 100. I didn’t really see a difference. He’s always that way.”

Crochet’s day will be remembered for his flirtation with baseball immortality. It was Boston’s deepest no-hit bid since 2016. But in the big picture, it was meaningful as a standout performance for a team that had lost five of six, including two to a ChiSox team

“That’s why he is who he is,” Story said. “And we needed it in the worst way. He stepped up and delivered for us. We needed a stopper and that’s what he is.”