Red Sox Garrett Crochet introduces himself to the postseason in an unforgettable way

NEW YORK — You could call it beginner’s luck, since this was Garrett Crochet’s first career postseason start.

But you should ask the Yankees if what they saw in the batter’s box for 7.2 innings Tuesday night had anything to do with luck. Ask them if the guy who was pumping 100 mph fastballs in the eighth inning was just lucky.

The truth is, we didn’t know what to expect from Crochet’s first postseason outing, and that includes Crochet himself.

“To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect,” said Crochet, “especially having not played in a postseason game here. But it was an electric atmosphere all night long.”

Indeed, it was: 7.2 innings, four hits, one earned run, no walks and 11 strikeouts across 117 pitches in a trilling 3-1 win over the Yankees in Game of the Wild Card round. His final pitch — a called strike on Yankees catcher Austin Wells — registered at 100 mph.

In the cauldron that is Yankee Stadium, it was actually Crochet’s job to shut down the power, to make sure that the ballpark didn’t become too electric for the home team.

He gave up singles to the first two hitters he faced and a solo, opposite-field shot to Anthony Volpe, then locked in to retire the next 17 hitters in succession.

It was a performance for the ages, and on his first try, put Crochet in a select class of Red Sox post-season mound masterpieces. Think: Jim Lonborg in Game 6 of the 1967 World Series. Or Luis Tiant in Game 1 of the 1975 World Series. Or Pedro Martinez in the 1999 ALCS against the Yankees. Or Josh Beckett across most of October in 2007.

Those were brilliant performances all, and on his first try, Crochet gained entrance to their exclusive club, willing his team to win deep into the eighth inning.

Closer Aroldis Chapman took it from there, retiring Jose Caballero for the final out in the eighth, then extricating himself from a self-induced bases-loaded, no-out mess in the ninth.

That Chapman was the only other pitcher to follow him had been forecast the day before by Crochet himself. During Monday’s workout, some members of the Red Sox front office had, for some reason gathered in the visitor’s bullpen and Alex Cora joked to Crochet that the two should call the bullpen phone as prank.

Crochet, as serious as could be, then told Cora he would only need to make one phone call in Game 1 — for Chapman.

In addition to being a monster on the mound, we can apparently add fortune teller to Crochet’s vast array of skills.

“Just being arrogant, to be honest,” shrugged Crochet of his bit of soothsaying. “I didn’t actually expect that to be the case. But when (Cora) sent me back out there (for the eighth), I was determined to leave it that way.”

Mission accomplished. If he felt any fatigue as he worked his way through the Yankee lineup in the eighth, he did a good job of disguising it.

“I feel like in this environment,” said Crochet, “it’s really hard to feel any sort of fatigue beyond mental and up until that point, I was still incredibly locked into the game, especially after we took the lead. There was a lot at stake, so it kept me locked in and engaged the whole time.”

“That’s a performance that big-time pitchers make,” said an appreciative Alex Bregman. “That’s who he is. Super proud of him.”

The confidence that Crochet so obviously had in himself was reflected in the confidence his teammates had in him. When he gave up the Volpe homer, he said he was motivated to make sure the deficit didn’t get any bigger. You can be sure that feeling was transferred in the dugout.

In that sense, Crochet is a throwback to a time when big-game pitchers carried their teams on their back, from Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax in the 1960s, up to Jack Morris in the 1980s and 1990s.

Toward that end, Crochet was asked if he ever wished he had pitched in another era, when complete games were almost commonplace and pitch counts had yet to be discovered.

“I don’t know if that’s sustainable with my velocity. I don’t know how hard they were throwing back then,” he said. “But I’d like to think that I’m prepared to do that in today’s game.”

Garrett Crochet, a man for all seasons. And Tuesday night, a season-saver, getting the Red Sox off to an important 1-0 lead in their wild card series, with a performance for the ages.

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