By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Editor

Garrett Crochet showed why he is considered one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball Tuesday night.
In a scoreless fourth inning in the American League’s 5-3 victory during the 94th annual Major League Baseball All-Star Game, Crochet gave up nothing but a soft single to the Phillies’ Alec Bohm but he blew away Home Run Derby winner Teoscar Hernandez of the Dodgers with a fastball in the inning as well.
“I showed people that I belonged here,” the former Ocean Springs High standout Crochet said afterward.
Crochet burst upon the scene with the Chicago White Sox this season and his solid work on the mound earned him a spot on the American League Team in the prestigious Mid-Summer Classic.

“I was talking to my wife about it,” Crochet said Monday, during workout day. “We thought we were going to be in Triple A to start the year. And here we are. It came full circle really fast.”
Crochet evolved from several seasons as a reliever and also overcame Tommy John surgery and transformed into the Opening Day starter for the White Sox this season. He came into the All-Star break as the major-league strikeout leader with 150. The 25-year-old has made 20 starts (107.1 innings), posting a 3.02 earned run average with a 6-6 record. He has walked just 23 batters.
‘‘Having earned that job and now to be sitting here, it’s a really special feeling,’’ Crochet added. “One I haven’t been able to wrap my head around yet, to be honest. I think it will take the season ending, looking back at what I was able to accomplish, to truly feel the weight of it.’’
 Crochet took the mound in the top of the fourth inning as the White Sox lone All-Star representative. Christian Yelich grounded out to José Ramírez for the first out, but Bohm poked a single into right field for an opposite-field base hit. But it didn’t shake Crochet, who struck Hernández and then got out of the inning with a groundout.

In his last start before the break, Crochet threw two scoreless innings, striking out four and allowing no hits in a 4-1 White Sox loss to the Pirates on Friday.
The Sox opted to go with a shorter outing for Crochet instead of skipping his turn in the rotation because they want him to experience 30-plus starts in a season and not tweak his routine.
Ironically enough, his next start is scheduled to be in the same stadium where he pitched Tuesday night in the All-Star Game, Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. The White Sox open the second half with three games in Kansas City then move on to Texas where Crochet should face the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers next Tuesday.

Crochet became the first Jackson County product in 83 years to pitch in the MLB All-Star Game when Moss Point’s Claude Passeau did so for the National League in 1941.