Red Sox erupt for 17 runs, Garrett Crochet settles down in rout of Orioles

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Apr 25, 2026

Published in Baseball

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The Red Sox needed a win like this.

After a week when everything that could have gone wrong did and the noise surrounding the club threatened to swallow the team whole, the Red Sox finally broke their four-game slide in grand fashion and got to enjoy a nice, drama-free win.

The offense came up with timely hits early, Garrett Crochet was back to being Garrett Crochet, and in the top of the ninth the Red Sox erupted in epic fashion, scoring 10 runs to turn what was already a blowout into an absolute laugher.

By the time their 17-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles was over, the Red Sox could finally catch their breath.

“We just did it for a whole nine innings there,” Red Sox catcher Connor Wong told NESN’s Jahmai Webster postgame. “Even with what the score was the mentality was just keep grinding it out, and we did that and we need to continue to do it.”

For the first time since scoring five runs in the third to go up 5-1 on the Twins back on April 15, the Red Sox built up a solid early lead thanks to a three-run rally in the top of the second. With two outs and Andruw Monasterio at second following a double, the slumping Caleb Durbin came up with one of his biggest hits of the season, ripping an RBI double to put the Red Sox ahead.

Wong followed with a walk, Isiah Kiner-Falefa had an RBI single and Ceddanne Rafaela added an RBI single of his own to make it 3-0. All told the Red Sox’s four hits in the second was their most hits in any inning since the seventh inning of Monday’s 8-6 win over the Tigers.

The Red Sox kept coming from there.

Willson Contreras drove in a fourth run in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly, and Connor Wong delivered the knockout blow with two outs in the fifth when he stepped up with the bases loaded and brought everyone home with a three-run double, putting the Red Sox ahead 7-0.

With that the Red Sox had more runs than they’d scored over their prior four games combined, and that was plenty of cushion for Crochet, who put his last two ugly starts behind him and got back on track.

Crochet retired the first seven Baltimore batters he faced, and over the course of six shutout innings he limited the Orioles to just three hits and two walks while striking out seven. The only real threats he faced came in the second, when Coby Mayo hit a one-out double, and in the sixth when Taylor Ward and Adley Rutschman singled to put two men on with one out.

No one scored in either instance, with Crochet ending his outing by drawing a 5-4-3 double play.

“He’s trending in the right direction, Minnesota seems like a while ago now,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said, referring to his calamitous start from two weeks ago. “It feels like his stuff is there and hopefully we can take off.”

Did Saturday’s outing feel like a sigh of relief?

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Crochet said. “I know I don’t (stink) but when you’re not seeing results it’s like, man, that’s just not fun.”

The Orioles got on the board with an RBI groundout by Leody Taveras in the seventh off reliever Greg Weissert, but beyond that Saturday’s result was never in doubt. The Red Sox made sure of that in the top of the ninth when they scored 10 runs, including the first seven before an out had even been recorded.

Contreras had an RBI single, Monasterio smashed the first grand slam of his career, and after the Orioles gave the ball to position player Weston Wilson the Red Sox continued mashing with a two-run shot by Durbin and a three-run shot by Contreras his second time up in the frame.

Monasterio finished 3 for 6 with the home run, two doubles and four RBIs, Contreras was 2 for 4 with a home run and five RBI, and the Red Sox collectively tallied 17 hits, their most in a game this season so far.

“We need them all but to really blow it open there, I mean, what a game from Mona,” Crochet said. “Pretty selfless of him to get the position player in there and to get the rest of the guys hot too. That felt good, that felt real good.”

It was also the second straight game the Red Sox recorded 10 or more hits, a sign that the club may finally be fighting out of its extended stretch of offensive ineptitude.

Great as the victory was, the reality remains that the Red Sox still have a tall hill to climb.

With the win the Red Sox improved to 10-17, which is still last in the AL East and was 7.5 games back of the Yankees pending the outcome of New York’s game later Saturday.

But the only way Boston can make up that ground is by stacking one win at a time. They’ll try to pick up another on Sunday when they go for the series against Baltimore.

“We’ve got a chance to win the series, that’s the most important thing,” Cora said. “I keep saying get to .500, how are we going to do it? You can win 10 in a row, yeah, of course, but if you win series you keep moving and we have a chance to do that tomorrow.”