Just a few days after Garrett Crochet signed a big-money extension with the Boston Red Sox, the lefty went out and delivered a career performance against the Baltimore Orioles. Crochet looked like a true ace Wednesday night as he shut down the O's for eight innings, snapping a four-game losing streak for Boston.

Call Crochet whatever you want after Wednesday's performance. An ace. Boston's stopper. Downright filthy. All applied to the 25-year-old southpaw.

Crochet made Orioles batters look silly throughout his dominant start, as he struck out eight, walked just one, and allowed only four hits -- all singles. He threw 102 pitches, one shy of his career high, with 62 of them going for strikes. It was the first time he's gone eight innings as a professional.

In his first start since signing a six-year, $170 million extension with Boston, Crochet gave the scuffling Red Sox exactly what the team needed on the mound.

"That's the reason he's here. That's the reason we committed to him," Boston manager Alex Cora said after the 3-0 victory. "He's the guy that we wanted out there. He did an outstanding job."

Crochet twirls eight shutout innings for Red Sox

Crochet was dominant from start to finish Wednesday night in Baltimore. He started his night by getting Jordan Westburg looking at an 89 MPH cutter, and capped off his 1-2-3 first by striking out Tyler O'Neill on three pitches. He allowed a single and a four-pitch walk in the bottom of the second, but escaped the inning unscathed when he got Jorge Mateo to ground into an inning-ending fielder's choice.

Crochet allowed another single in the fourth but struck out the side, with two of those Ks ending with Orioles baffled by what he was offering. He struck out two more batters in the fifth, and fanned his eighth and final batter in the seventh.

Crochet finished the seventh inning with 92 pitches, and there was no doubt in his mind that he'd be back out for the eighth. That's just how aces are wired. He gave up a leadoff single to start the frame, but needed just 10 pitches to set down the Orioles thanks to an inning-ended, 5-6-3 double play.

After struggling with his location a bit on Opening Day in Texas, Crochet locked in and attacked the zone Wednesday night.

"Overall, I felt like just pouring pitches in the strike zone. I know that I've got good stuff; not in an arrogant way, just, I've got a lot of trust in it," Crochet said after picking up his first win as a member of the Red Sox. "So for me, it was just, let's pour some pitches in the zone, trying to eliminate the walks as much as we can."

Crochet admitted after the game it had been a while since he had seen the eighth inning.

"My first start in college, I went eight and I haven't sniffed it since," he said. "It's funny. But yeah, I felt really good."

Crochet was solid in his first start in a Boston uniform, giving the Red Sox five innings of two-run ball in an Opening Day win over the Texas Rangers. He now owns a 1.38 ERA and 0.923 WHIP through his first two starts with his new team.

While the Red Sox are 2-4 on the season, having Crochet at the front of the rotation gives the team a lot of hope. He's happy that he's locked in long-term with the franchise, and believes bigger things are coming in the near future.

"I can't think of the last time I played baseball for pride," he said. "In college, you're playing to get drafted, and once you're in the big leagues, you're playing to stay in the big leagues. So to have this security and feel like I'm playing to truly just win ballgames, it takes a lot of the riff-raff out of it."