But only by a week.
If you’ve been on Garrett Crochet Velocity Drop Watch the past few weeks, when the ace’s heater was two miles an hour slower on average than last year, you may stand down. Crochet calmed any creeping worries on Saturday when he threw a 108-pitch gem and threw his hardest pitch of the season at 98.5 MPH. (Chris Cotillo, MassLive)
But it’s possible that there was an even more encouraging pitching development on Sunday. That’s the day that Lucas Giolito worked into the seventh inning against the Tigers. After an ugly start against the Rangers in which he really only threw fastballs and changeups, Giolito changed the grip on his slider and put it back in his arsenal this weekend. It seems to have worked. (Chris Cotillo, MassLive)
Unfortunately, Crochet and Giolito won’t be getting any rotation help from Walker Buehler this week. While the Sox originally hoped Buehler would be able to rejoin the team as soon as he’s eligible to come off the IL in two days, it looks like his return will pushed back to next week. (Sean McGuire, NESN)
If only the Rafael Devers situation could be remedied as quickly as Giolito fixed his slider. Of course, there’s another way to smooth things over: Devers can hit like one of the best players in the league, as he did this past weekend and as he has for most of the season. (Rob Bradford, WEEI)
So the first base controversy doesn’t seem to have affected Devers’ bat, and it also doesn’t seem to have bothered his teammates too much — at least some of them. Giolito reiterated that the Red Sox are “very lucky to have him.” (Robert Falkoff, MLB.com)
You might have been wondering whether Dustin Pedroia showed up in Kansas City this weekend in order to help smooth things out between the front office and his old team. But, nope, it turns out his appearance had more to do with his relationship with Royals star Bobby Witt, Jr. (Colin McCarthy, Boston.com)