Crochet, White Sox drop heartbreaking opener, 1-0

Eight Ks, no walks from the southpaw well offset by 11 Ks, no walks from his offense

When it’s said that one pitch can make or break a game, that doesn’t only refer to walk-off homers.

In a stunning and heroic, but ultimately heartbreaking effort, Garrett Crochet defied expectations with a taut six innings of one-run ball — and lost, 1-0, to the Detroit Tigers on Opening Day.

Worse, it was the most inane of brain cramps that triggered the rotgut special that keyed the defeat. Facing Javier Báez to open the third, and putting him in an 0-2 hole, Crochet and catcher Martín Maldonado opted not to roll the ball to the plate and induce an easy whiff from the notoriously free-swinging clown prince but for a center-cut fastball that was slapped to right for a single. El Mago stole second as Maldonado’s defense-first sure hands short-armed a pitch, moved to third on a Parker Meadows ground out and skipped home a sac fly from Andy Ibáñez.

White Sox fans booed lustily. However, the run still counted.

But the story of the game for Chicago was Crochet and only Crochet, unbearably brilliant over his six frames. The man who’d never even started a game pitching in high school stared down his first major league start with a derisive farmer sneeze, unmoved by crisp weather, a formidable opponent, or debut jitters.

Entering action, Crochet had never thrown longer than three innings and 46 pitches in the majors. He managed to double that personal best in frames and get more efficient as the game wore on, as 45 pitches through three turned into 87 through six. Six of his first 11 outs came by K, he tapped 100 on the gun by the second inning, and by the end the southpaw had seared through the Bengals with eight strikeouts against zero walks.

Moreover, manager Pedro Grifol allowed his season opener to flex a bit, trotting him out in the sixth with 76 pitches under his belt and NO ONE up in the bullpen. It was only with Crochet passing 80 pitches did Deivi García get up off his duff to don his fireman’s gear and get ready.

If Crochet was the hero, there was a clear villain: The anemic White Sox offense. Sure, Tigs starter Tarik Skubal was strong, matching Crochet pitch for pitch. But the White Sox had a mere six hard-hit balls in the game, just one of them falling for a single. Worse (apologies to the hitting-metrics nerds getting off on all those soft velos) the White Sox did not have a single batter reach second base.

Not in the ninth. Not in the first run through the order. IN THE GAME.

True to type, the game ended on consecutive strikeouts by the top of the White Sox order, Andrew Benintendi, Yoán Moncada and Luis Robert Jr. For the game, the White Sox managed just three hits and no other baserunners, while piling up 11 Ks.

The White Sox are off on Friday and get back to it on Saturday in what is destined to be a yearlong battle back toward .500.