BOSTON (AP) — The Red Sox have had a chance in games whenever Garrett Crochet has been on the mound this season.
And with the exception of one pitch in Friday's 2-1, extra-inning win over the Yankees, he again proved to be the antidote to Yankees slugger Aaron Judge.
Crochet held New York scoreless over a career-high 8 1/3 innings, striking out the Yankees slugger three times while holding the rest of New York's lineup to four hits with seven total Ks.
But with Boston clinging to a 1-0 lead and Crochet back on the hill to try to finish the game in the ninth, his fourth time facing Judge proved costly. Crochet took him to a full count, but let his 99 mph fastball dip down in the strike zone — Judge's sweet spot. He jumped on it, blasting it 443 feet over the Green Monster and out of Fenway Park to tie the game.
“I’m going to live and die with my best pitch,” Crochet said afterward. "Whether it be pitch selection or execution, tough way to end it. But overall, I felt really good tonight.”
It helped that Crochet's partner throughout the night — catcher and former Yankee Carlos Narváez — helped put a happy face on the night, when he ended the game with a walk-off single in the 10th. Crochet didn't get the victory, but Narváez said it didn't diminish his masterful night on the mound.
For the season, Judge is just 1 for 7 with six strikeouts against Crochet.
“Crochet was awesome,” Narváez said. “He made a mistake a little bit. But that was a 100 mph fastball. That was impressive. ... Probably the best pitcher now against the best hitter in baseball.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora said he has no regrets leaving Crochet in the game.
“That wasn’t fun. But our guy was throwing great," Cora said. "He was efficient toward the end. We gave him a shot. It didn’t work out. That’s why (Judge) is who he is. One of the best in world, and he got one pitch down and he hit it out of the ballpark. You tip your hat.”
Though he acknowledged he'd probably lose sleep over Judge's last at-bat, Crochet was proud of his overall outing.
“It was a special feeling jogging back out there. Standing (ovation). I could tell the fans wanted me out there,” Crochet said. "I already wanted to be out there pretty bad. But it made it mean a little bit more. It made me grab a little bit more in that inning. I wish I could have finished it out. ... If my night had to end there from a home run I’m at least glad that it was on a fastball.”
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Boston Red Sox pitcher Garrett Crochet, center, gives the ball to manager Alex Cora, left, who removes him in the top of the ninth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Friday, June 13, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Jim Davis)
Boston Red Sox pitcher Garrett Crochet reacts after giving up a ninth-inning solo home run to New York Yankees' Aaron Judge during a baseball game Friday, June 13, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Jim Davis)
LONDON (AP) — Political opposition leaders in the United Kingdom have called for a human rights activist to be stripped of his citizenship over past social media posts allegedly containing violent and antisemitic language within days of the dual national returning to Britain after years in Egyptian prisons.
The leaders of the Conservative and Reform parties also demanded the deportation of Alaa Abd el-Fattah following the discovery of tweets from more than a decade ago in which he allegedly endorsed killing “Zionists’’ and police.
“The comments he made on social media about violence against Jews, white people and the police, amongst others, are disgusting and abhorrent,” Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch wrote Monday in the Daily Mail newspaper.
Abd el-Fattah on Monday apologized for the tweets while saying some had been taken out of context and misrepresented.
The activist has spent years in Egyptian prisons, most recently for allegedly spreading fake news about the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. He returned to the U.K. on Friday after Egyptian authorities lifted a travel ban that had forced him to remain in the country since he was released in September.
But he immediately became embroiled in controversy after Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “delighted” that Abd el-Fattah was back in the UK and had been reunited with his family.
That triggered the republication of messages on the social media platform Twitter, now X, that were described as antisemitic, homophobic and anti-British.
Abd el-Fattah expressed shock at the turn of events in a statement released Monday.
“I am shaken that, just as I am being reunited with my family for the first time in 12 years, several historic tweets of mine have been republished and used to question and attack my integrity and values, escalating to calls for the revocation of my citizenship,’’ he said.
The remarks were mostly expressions of a young man’s anger and frustrations in a time of regional crises such as the wars in Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza and the rise of police brutality against young people in Egypt, Abd el-Fattah said.
“Looking at the tweets now — the ones that were not completely twisted out of their meaning — I do understand how shocking and hurtful they are, and for that I unequivocally apologise,’’ he said in the statement.
But that has not staunched the flow of anger from politicians.
Reform Party leader Nigel Farage described the posts as “abhorrent” and said they showed Abd el-Fattah held views that are “completely opposed to our British way of life.”
“It should go without saying that anyone who possesses racist and anti-British views such as those of Mr. elFattah (sic) should not be allowed into the UK,” Farage wrote in a letter to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who oversees immigration matters.
FILE - Pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who was in prison for almost all of the past 12 years, speaks to his friends at his home after he got a presidential pardon, in Cairo, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Khaled Elfiqi, File)
