For the second straight outing Kutter Crawford was in full control, and Sunday the Red Sox starting pitcher strengthened his case for a spot in the starting rotation with a dominant three-inning performance in the club’s 3-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.

Crawford threw three scoreless while allowing two hits, no walks and tallying four strikeouts. He threw 38 pitches, 29 for strikes, and limited the Blue Jays to just a pair of singles.

The rest of Boston’s pitchers got the job done as well, with the Blue Jays only managing one run on a solo home run by Alejandro Kirk in the top of the sixth. That came off Red Sox lefty Brandon Walter, who allowed three hits and a walk over 2.2 innings with two strikeouts, and then Chase Shugart, Lucas Luetge and Jason Alexander all threw one scoreless inning each, with Alexander locking down the save in the ninth.

Most of Boston’s projected starters were in the lineup, and of that group Masataka Yoshida had the best day. He went 1 for 2 with an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth, and in the bottom of the eighth minor leaguers Nathan Hickey and Dalton Guthrie each had RBI knocks to put Boston ahead for good.

Jarren Duran also went 1 for 2, Trevor Story went 1 for 3, and Triston Casas and Enmanuel Valdez each went 0 for 1 with a walk.

Overall the Red Sox are now 7-3-1 in Grapefruit League play.

Cron signing official

The Red Sox officially announced the signing of first baseman C.J. Cron to a minor league deal on Sunday, confirming that the former All-Star will join the club as a non-roster invitee.

A veteran of 10 MLB seasons, the 34-year-old has a proven track record as a right-handed slugger, boasting four seasons with 25 or more home runs. He was an All-Star with the Colorado Rockies in 2022, when he hit 29 home runs with 102 RBI, but last season he was limited by a back injury to 71 games, over which he hit 12 homers with a .729 OPS.

Cron is expected to become an immediate contender to make the Opening Day roster, and in the coming weeks he’ll go head to head with Bobby Dalbec for the back-up first base job. According to Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, Cron will make $2 million in base salary if he makes the MLB roster and could potentially earn another $500,000 in performance bonuses.

Who’s up next?

Josh Winckowski will make his second start of the spring Monday against the Detroit Tigers in Lakeland, and he’ll be followed out of the bullpen by Isaiah Campbell, Justin Hagenman, Andrew Politi and Joely Rodriguez. He will face off against Tigers lefty Tarik Skubal, who has already been announced as Detroit’s Opening Day starter. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m.