![\"Boston](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AP25134028781885.jpg\")
Boston Red Sox pitcher Garrett Whitlock throws against the Detroit Tigers in the sixth inning during a baseball game, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo\/Paul Sancya)<\/p>\nFORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014 When Boston Red Sox reliever Garrett Whitlock reports to Team USA for next month\u2019s World Baseball Classic, he\u2019ll become teammates with one of the greatest pitchers of the century.<\/p>\n
Whitlock wonders if this future first-ballot Hall of Famer will remember him.<\/p>\n
It was late July 2025, and the Los Angeles Dodgers were in Boston for the weekend. Enjoying one of several Thursdays the Red Sox had off last season, Whitlock and his wife, Jordan, were downtown at Faneuil Hall for a special shopping trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and my wife, we had just found out we were having our second boy, and so we were at Build-A-Bear Workshop,\u201d Whitlock told the Herald. \u201cAnd I walked out of Build-A-Bear, and I was like, \u2018Ah, I\u2019ll be that guy.\u2019 And so I walked up and I was like, \u2018Hey Clayton, my name\u2019s Garrett. I pitch for Boston, and I just wanted to say hi and introduce myself.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just like, \u2018Oh, hey man. How are you?\u2019 Super nice guy, but I was like, man, I feel bad. That guy has no clue who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though both men pitched two days later in the same game, they didn\u2019t have any further interactions that weekend or otherwise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like that\u2019ll be a funny conversation starter, like, \u2018Hey man, do you remember that random guy that stopped you outside the Hall? That was me,\u2019\u201d Whitlock said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
Regardless of Kershaw\u2019s answer, Whitlock is thrilled and honored to be suiting up for Team USA. He\u2019s looking forward to talking shop with Kershaw and 2025 Cy Young Award winners Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal, and reuniting with former Red Sox teammate Michael Wacha.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and AC (Alex Cora) were talking about it today,\u201d Whitlock said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of good veterans that have come through here in my time, where I\u2019ve been able to bounce ideas off of a lot of really good minds. And that\u2019s what I\u2019m looking forward to most about the WBC, just learning from the vets and everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kershaw isn\u2019t the only veteran lefty Whitlock assumes won\u2019t recognize him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve actually followed Matthew Boyd for a long time, I\u2019m not sure he even knows who I am,\u201d the ever-modest righty said. \u201cI\u2019ve heard nothing but amazing things about him, so I\u2019m interested to pick his brain a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boston Red Sox pitcher Garrett Whitlock throws against the Detroit Tigers in the sixth inning during a baseball game, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo\/Paul Sancya)<\/p>\n
To prepare for the WBC, Whitlock began his spring training program two weeks earlier than usual. Tuesday was his fifth time facing live hitters.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s pleased with his progression. After a tremendous 2025 season back in the Boston bullpen full-time, Whitlock didn\u2019t want to change his offseason work too much. The one significant exception is born out of his last outing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt honestly sucked,\u201d Whitlock said of the team\u2019s defeat by the Yankees in the three-game wild-card series. \u201cWith what happened with me especially, I heard it from the fans all offseason. Like, \u2018Oh you were so good, but it didn\u2019t even matter. You weren\u2019t good when it counted.\u2019 I basically let that feed me all offseason.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whitlock pitched 1 2\/3 innings in Game 2, and blames himself for the 4-3 loss that evened the series. He worked around a one-out double and struck out two of four batters in the seventh, but after recording two quick outs in the eighth, the Yankees got to him; a walk, go-ahead RBI single, followed by another single and walk brought Cora out to the mound for a pitching change.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made it a goal of mine,\u201d Whitlock said. \u201cI did a ton of, basically, conditioning and everything like that to make sure that I\u2019m never in a situation where I get tired again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whitlock pitched in 62 games and struck out 91 batters, both new career-bests, in the regular season. There were 18 multi-inning appearances, including 11 two-inning outings, among his 72 total frames.<\/p>\n
Yet only twice, on April 6 and June 23, did Whitlock exceed 37 pitches in a game. His season-high 43 pitches came in the former, at a time of year when players are fresh, not yet bogged down by the inevitable exhaustion that builds over a 162-game season. He averaged 19 pitches per game.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s fair to say efficiency throughout the regular season made the righty a victim of his own success, but he won\u2019t give himself the out. No contributing factors or defenses, no matter how legitimate, are excusable in his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know, but that\u2019s my fault,\u201d Whitlock said. \u201c(Last year) it was like, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m being efficient, so I\u2019m good.\u2019 This year it\u2019s, \u2018Hey, even when I am efficient, I\u2019m still going to make sure I\u2019m conditioning after the game. Even though I was efficient today, I\u2019m preparing to be ready for the day I\u2019m not.\u2019 Because that\u2019s what happened. I just wasn\u2019t efficient that day. My pitch count got way up, and I ran out of gas.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s being prepared for when I suck and I need to make sure I still got it,\u201d he added with a chuckle. \u201cI\u2019m not going to let it happen where I\u2019m tired again. I\u2019m not going to run out of gas, because that was embarrassing. I don\u2019t want to have that happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014 When Boston Red Sox reliever Garrett Whitlock reports to Team USA for next month\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[374,28640,363,369,99,63077],"class_list":{"0":"post-465276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-boston-red-sox","9":"tag-garrett-whitlock","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york-yankees","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-spring-training"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}