After a pair of taxing days for the bullpen, the Boston Red Sox needed an ace-like performance out of Garrett Crochet in Wednesday night's series finale against the New York Mets. Crochet was holding up his end of the bargain, until he got an early hook from manager Alex Cora.

The early exit was all by design. But the Red Sox didn't communicate it very well with Crochet, who was visibly frustrated when he was pulled from the start.

Crochet had just struck out the always dangerous Juan Soto on three pitches to start the top of the sixth inning when Cora sauntered to the mound at Fenway Park. The lefty was only at 85 pitches for the night, but that was enough for Cora and the Red Sox.

Crochet departed with one out in the sixth with the game tied, 1-1. Boston eventually lost 5-1. Of his 85 pitches, Crochet threw 62 of them for strikes.

The Red Sox relied on six relievers to get the final 20 outs in Tuesday's 2-0 win over the Mets after starter Walker Buehler was ejected in the third inning. On Monday, four relievers were called upon to close out a 3-1 win.

So why the early hook for the team's ace on a night when the team could have used a lengthy outing? Cora said Crochet's abbreviated outing was always in the cards.

"Today was one of those days that we circled up that we're going to be short, and [the Mets] put together some good at-bats early on, fouled off some pitches," Cora explained after the defeat. "The pitch count got up in the first inning, but after that, he was efficient and gave us enough."

Crochet needed 22 pitches to work around a leadoff double by Francisco Lindor to get through the first inning, and then another 20 pitches to get through the top of the fifth. Wednesday night was the sixth time this season the Red Sox have kept Crochet under 100 pitches in an outing.

"It's not tough," Cora said of monitoring Crochet's workload. "It's for the benefit of the player. We're here for the long run, and we need that guy to make his starts. For us to go to where we feel we can go, we need him." 

The team just needs to do a better job communicating its intentions with Crochet.

Crochet was unaware that he'd be making an early exit Wednesday, which is something the team probably should have let him know ahead of time. Communication has been a bit of an issue with the Red Sox this season; just ask Raffy Devers.

As a starting pitcher and fierce competitor, Crochet obviously didn't take the early hook very well -- at least at first. His face of shock matched that of Red Sox Nation when Cora made his way to the mound, and he let out a loud profanity when he saw his skipper.

"I was frustrated," Crochet admitted after the game. "I just wanted a chance to pick up my teammates in the bullpen. They've obviously worked really hard this series and I wanted to try and keep them out of it as much as possible."

Cora explained the move with Crochet when he made it back to the dugout, and Crochet gave his skipper a quick embrace to let him know it was all good.

"He was just kind of letting me know, 'Hey, we're monitoring your workload.' I said, 'I get it.' I apologized for yelling a curse word on the field when I saw him coming out there," said Crochet. "I wasn't trying to show him up. I was just really in the moment. I knew where my pitch count was and how my body was feeling. So I was excited to attack the next hitter, but it was in no way my intention to show him up at any point."

Despite going just 5.1 innings on Wednesday, Crochet still leads the Majors with 68.1 innings of work this season. Last year at this time, he was up to 58 innings pitched for the Chicago White Sox.

Crochet understands the cautious approach by Boston, given his limited workload as a starter. But as a competitor, he really wanted to pick up his relievers after their pitching led the team to wins in the first two games of the series.

"It's tough. Looking at my teammates in the eye following the game, I'd like to be able to do that after laying it on the line," said Crochet. "It is what it is. Not my call. I throw until the ball's taken out of my hand. That's really all there is to it." 

Liam Hendricks got the final two outs of the sixth inning, but allowed three runs in the top of the seventh and was tagged with the loss. 

It's understandable that a team would want to protect it's 25-year-old ace. But the Red Sox are hovering around .500 right now and need to be stacking wins at this point, otherwise there won't be an opportunity for Crochet to pitch come October.