MIAMI — First major league start, check.
First Opening Day start and Pitcher of the Month honor, check-check.
First All-Star Game selection, check that one, too.
White Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet, to no one's surprise, was named to the American League All-Star team Sunday, crossing off another achievement in a season for the 25-year-old that has seen him lead the majors with 147 strikeouts and 12.47 per nine innings while posting a 3.08 ERA.
"Now that it’s real it definitely has a different feel to it," Crochet said. "Excited. Thankful for the people who voted. Thankful for my teammates. I wouldn’t be here without them. I know it’s been a bumpy season but the relationships we formed in the clubhouse really makes it easy to go out there and play hard for the guys."
Crochet thanked pitching coach Ethan Katz and catchers Korey Lee and Martin Maldonado.
"I know it’s been said a lot but going back to spring training thinking I was going to start the year in Charlotte and build up my innings to knowing I made the rotation to knowing it was going to be Opening Day," Crochet said. "So you know, having it culminate in being an All-Star is a really cool feeling."
Owning the third-most strikeouts before the break by a Sox pitcher behind Chris Sale in 2015 (157) and Dylan Cease in 2022 (150).
Adding another chapter in the Sox’ 2024 book of “ways to lose” a game, the Sox lowered their MLB worst record to 26-66 on Jake Burger’s three-run, tiebreaking homer in the ninth inning against Michael Kopech, who started the inning with a walk to Vidal Brujan, balked two runners over and allowed four runs on two hits and two walks.
The loss followed a 4-3 defeat Saturday in which the Sox led 3-0. They led this one 4-1 aftrer Jonathan Cannon pitched six innings of one-run ball. Tanner Banks gave up two runs in the seventh.
“Coming into a one-run game like that, a leadoff walk is not acceptable,” Kopech said. “Walking the leadoff guy was a tough position to be in, but it’s not a situation that’s foreign to me. I’ve done it before and been able to work out of it.
"After that, it just comes down to executing and I didn’t do a great job of that"
Josh Bell’s RBI double with two out eluded a leaping Tommy Pham at the wall.
Brujan went to an uncovered bag at third base on Nick Fortes' sacrifice bunt in the ninth. Catcher Korey Lee should have been there to cover but was late.
Grifol said he and his staff continue to address fundamentals daily.
“We have to minimize those fundamental and mental mistakes,” he said.
“Especially hitting the cutoff guy, all that little stuff. I am. Again, 162 games, you are going to see things over and over again to a point that you can raise a question ‘are they even talking about anything here? Are they even trying to fix anything?’ Well, yeah, we are. And we don’t let things, we don’t procrastinate with that kind of stuff. We take care of it. Sometimes it takes two or threre times to take care of it. Sometimes it takes one. Sometimes you won’t see it for a couple of weeks and then you’ll see it again. That’s just the game.”
