BOSTON — Chris Sale was asked earlier this week about the possibility of Kutter Crawford, a fellow Florida Gulf Coast University baseball alum, joining him in the Boston Red Sox rotation.
“I don’t know if the world’s ready for that,” Sale joked. “It would be awesome. He’s a buddy of mine. We hang out in the offseason. He was living in Fort Myers for a little bit. We were training at the facility together. We play golf together.”
The world better be ready because today is the day.
Crawford will start for the Red Sox on Sunday in place of Nick Pivetta who has been placed on the COVID-related IL. It will be his major league debut.
The Red Sox are taking a precautionary approach with Pivetta, who is vaccinated.
“It’s one of those where we have to be very cautious,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “As you guys know with testing and all that, sometimes the results doesn’t match up. So out of precaution, we did it. We’ll know more today or tomorrow morning.”
The Red Sox and Cleveland Indians play at 1:10 p.m. here at Fenway Park.
“He’s a full go,” Cora said about Crawford. “Obviously his first big league start. It should be fun. I think we’ll manage it as a group just like a regular start similar to Tanner (Houck). Go five and see where we’re at.”
Crawford, a 25-year-old righty, is 5-3 with a 4.16 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and .231 batting average against in 16 games (15 starts) for Double-A Portland and Triple-A Worcester this season.
He returned in 2021 after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Boston selected Crawford in the 16th round (491st overall) in 2017.
He took a perfect game into the sixth inning for Worcester last Saturday at Buffalo. He allowed just one run and one hit while striking out eight in 6 innings. He throws a fastball, changeup, curveball and cutter. One of his focuses during his rehab was to shorten his arm action.
“I just honestly think he knows how to pitch,” Sale said. “He knows who he is and what’s going to make him successful. And he’s not scared. He doesn’t back down. That’s more than half the battle in this game is the confidence factor. I got to see him throw live a few times.
“In Scranton, he gave up a big homer. Guy flipped his bat. The whole thing,” Sale added. “Next pitch, strike one. And for pitchers in general, you don’t see that a lot, especially from quote-unquote younger guys down in the minor leagues. And I saw that from a lot of the guys.”
Crawford is averaging just 1.5 walks per nine innings compared to 12.3 strikeouts in 75 ⅔ innings this season.
“That’s more player development and the job people were doing down there,” Cora said. “He throws strikes. His stuff is really good. He controls both sides of the plate. He can elevate. He can expand with his offspeed pitches. We’re comfortable with him. And we expect him to go out there and compete the right way and give us a chance to win the game.”
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