Sean McAdam: In battle of base...

BOSTON — It was the matchup within the game, the battle inside the war, and for the 36,622 on hand at Fenway Park, it was undoubtedly worth the price of admission alone.

Four times, Aaron Judge came the bat against Garrett Crochet. The first three times, Crochet recorded a strikeout, extending Judge’s streak of futility to six straight plate appearances ending in a punch out against the Red Sox ace lefty, dating back to last Saturday in the Bronx.

In the final matchup of the night, however, Judge was the victor, crushing a 100 mph fastball over everything in left, tying the game with Crochet just two outs away from a complete game shutout.

Judge won that confrontation, but Crochet’s Red Sox recovered to win the game, 2-1 over the Yankees in 10 innings.

Still, even after a walk-off single by Carlos Narvaez to win the game, the Judge-Crochet battles were all anyone wanted to talk about.

Crochet had attacked Judge with a steady stream of four-seamers, almost all of them up in the zone. Most of the time, Judge, arguably the game’s best hitter, couldn’t catch up.

But perhaps feeling some fatigue on his 107th and final pitch of the night, Crochet missed location and spotted his final fastball — measured at 99.6 mph — down-and-in.

And Judge hit it up-and-out, some 443 feet, measured off the bat at 115.5 mph.

“For me, I’m going to live and die with my best pitch,” said Crochet. “Whether it be pitch selection or execution, tough way to end it. But overall, felt really good tonight. Ideally, I was just trying to go up about letter-high. But also, trying to throw it as hard as I can because he had probably seen, I don’t know the number, but he had probably seen 14 fastballs by that time. He saw 12 six days ago, so, yeah....lack of execution there.”

“It seems like that was the first fastball down that he got (all night),” said Cora of the pitch in question, “and he did that. Impressive. But our guy was great. It was amazing.”

Indeed, it was perhaps Crochet’s only mistake of the night. In addition to fanning Judge the first three times, Crochet was nearly flawless, yielding just three hits — all singles — through the first eight innings. In five of those eight frames, he faced the minimum number of hitters in the inning. Prior to Judge’s last at-bat, Crochet had retired 12 of the previous 13 hitters.

Before Friday night, Crochet had never made it to the ninth inning in a start in his career. When he sprinted out of the home dugout in the middle of the inning, Fenway erupted — half in recognition of what they had already witnessed, and perhaps half in appreciation to Alex Cora for allowing him the opportunity.

“It was a special feeling just jogging back out there and (getting) a standing O,” Crochet said. “I could tell the fans wanted me out there. I already wanted to be out there, but (the response) made me want it a little bit more....It was really cool.”

Crochet had mixed in a cutter earlier in the at-bat, but there was little doubt about his weapon of choice as the showdown continued.

“If I gave up a homer on the cutter, if I gave it up on the sweeper, I would have hated myself a little bit more,” said Crochet. “If my night had to end there from a home run, I’m at least glad it was on a fastball.”

“He wanted it,” said Narvaez of the choice of the heater. “That’s his best pitch. That’s why he’s one of the best pitcher in baseball right now. After 100 pitches, anybody can get tired and he was 100 mph. If (Judge) is going to clip us, clips us with the best pitch.”

Thanks to the reaction from the fans and the circumstances, Crochet was able to draw on a little extra adrenaline to help power his fastball a little more. His final three pitches of the night were also, no coincidence, his three hardest — 100.1 mph, 100.2 mph, and 99.6 mph.

“I think, not even up for debate, the best hitter in the league right now,” said Crochet. “It’s going to take a little bit extra to get him, especially for the fourth time in one game. That’s just the nature of the beast. (The increased velo on the last three) is not as intentional as it is I’m just amped up for the moment, I’ll say that.”

Despite the stakes and, on this night, the outcome of their last duel, Crochet said it’s still possible to, in the moment, enjoy the challenge of doing battle with Judge.

“When you’re at this level,” said Crochet, “facing a guy like that make you feel like you’re at one level higher. It’s really special.”