The injury to Chris Sale opened up a hole in the Red Sox rotation for their three-games series with the Guardians in Cleveland.
The Red Sox will look to Kutter Crawford, who has pitched mostly out of the bullpen this season, to fill the void Wednesday while they have yet to announce a starter for Thursday’s contest. But even though Crawford will make his second consecutive start, and fourth of the season, that won’t become his permanent role.
“No, not really,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters Tuesday from Progressive Field on if the Red Sox were planning on stretching Crawford out. “We’ll go tomorrow and then I think we reassess the situation over the weekend.”
Crawford went three innings in his previous start this past Saturday against the Tampa Bay Rays, allowing one run on two hits while striking out three. The 27-year-old, who started 12 games for the Red Sox a season ago, has performed much better out of the bullpen than as a starter this season, which probably is why Cora is hesitant to keep him in the starting rotation.
In Crawford’s three starts this season, he posted a 6.75 ERA and 1.417 WHIP while opposing batters are hitting .294 off of him. Crawford has been much more effective as a reliever, holding the opposition to a .143 batting average to go along with a 1.66 ERA and a microscopic 0.692 WHIP.
Knowing his importance to the bullpen going forward, the Red Sox don’t plan to give Crawford a heavy workload in his start against the Guardians with Cora expecting Crawford to pitch just three or four innings.
“You have to be careful with his health,” Cora said. “He just pitched three innings on Saturday. He gets three days. He’s pitching tomorrow. If we push him forward then how is he going to bounce back? He’s very important for us regardless of the role. He’s a guy that’s been great throughout the season. So, we have to be careful and keep him healthy.”
