BOSTON — The Red Sox weren’t in a great place as a pitching staff Wednesday.

The bullpen tossed 11 scoreless innings over the previous two games, particularly with 6 1/3 innings after the premature ejection of starter Walker Buehler in Tuesday’s win.

That marked a great day for Garrett Crochet to get the ball in the finale against the New York Mets. Or so it seemed.

Crochet leads the league in innings pitched in just his second season as a full-time starter. He tossed 146 innings a year ago with the Chicago White Sox. While the Red Sox have let him eat in early outings, manager Alex Cora is adamant about protecting his ace.

“We’ve got to be careful, too,” Cora said pregame. “He’s very important in what we’re trying to accomplish. It’s a dangerous game. The conditions aren’t great. Where we’re at bullpen-wise is where we’re at. We won the series yesterday. We want more, of course, but at the same time knowing it’s 162. To do cool things in August, September and hopefully October, we’ve got to be very careful.”

Indeed, they were careful. Crochet allowed just one earned run in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out Juan Soto on his 85th pitch for the first out of the sixth inning. Following through on a decision made last week in preparations for the start, the Red Sox manager came to the mound to get his starter.

“He did a good job,” Cora said postgame. “Today was one of those days we circled that we were going to be short.”

“I wasn’t made aware of it before the game, thankfully,” Crochet said. “That’s the last thing on my mind when I’m going out there to lay it all on the line. I have a lot of love, respect and trust in the front office and coaching staff here. If that’s their call, I’m gonna respect that.”

The Red Sox dropped the game 5-1 to the Mets. Crochet certainly didn’t hold back frustrations on the mound when Cora came to take the ball, but the ace reluctantly understands the vision of the coaching staff.

“I was frustrated,” Crochet said with a laugh. “I just wanted the chance to pick up my teammates, the bullpen. They’ve obviously worked really hard this series. I wanted to try and keep them out of it as much as possible. … I apologized for yelling a curse word when he came out there. 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. I was really excited to attack the next hitter. It was in no way my intention to show him up.”

“Yeah, it’s tough,” Crochet continued. “Looking my teammates in the eye after a game, I’d like to be able to do that after laying it all on the line. It is what it is. Not my call. I throw until the ball is taken out of my hand. I respect their decision. That’s really all there is to it.”

Despite a dire situation for the bullpen, Cora would not break on his commitment to ensuring that Crochet is fresh and ready to rock when games really matter in a postseason push, which only happens if the team breaks .500 tendencies, for the Red Sox later this season.

“It’s not tough, it’s for the benefit of the player,” Cora said. “To make his starts and for us to go to where we feel we can go, we need him. … We’re going to find some days where we’re going to take advantage of them, regardless of the situation. You’ve got to put the player first. He was very upset in the beginning, then he was OK with it. Obviously, we were short (in the bullpen), but that doesn’t dictate what we’re going to do with our ace.”

Here are more notes from Wednesday’s Mets-Red Sox game:

— Mets starter Tylor Megill tied a career-high with 10 strikeouts against Boston in just 4 2/3 innings.

— Crochet struck out Soto three times on a total of 10 pitches. Soto did not take the bat off his shoulder for the first seven pitches against the Red Sox starter.

— The Red Sox lineup struck out a season-high 16 times in the loss. Alex Bregman went 0-for-4 and struck out four times in a game for the first time in his career.

— Boston dropped the finale for a third consecutive series.

— The Red Sox continue the homestand Thursday night as they welcome the Baltimore Orioles to Fenway for a four-game series. First pitch (weather permitting) is set for 6:45 p.m. ET. You can catch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.