Payton Tolle carried a perfect game through 16 batters Friday night before Spencer Jones broke it up with a bloop single to left in the sixth inning. The 23-year-old still finished seven scoreless innings and helped the Red Sox beat the New York Yankees 6-1.
Tolle’s Friday Night
Tolle woke up Friday with body aches and a fever, then still took the ball and said, "I was like, I don’t feel great, but I’m gonna pitch today". He was given cold medicine and a booster of vitamins before the start, and he answered with 88 pitches, 61 strikes, seven strikeouts, two walks and one hit allowed.
By the time Jones ended the perfect-game bid, Tolle had already run through 16 straight batters. He later said, "I figured it was my last batter, too, so I took a moment. It was a slow walk in just because I wanted to look up and take it in again."
Red Sox Support Early
The Red Sox gave him room with runs in the first and second innings. Wilyer Abreu tripled in the first and scored on a Willson Contreras single, then Tsung-Che Cheng grounded out with the bases loaded in the second to bring in another run.
That support let Tolle work with a lead while he mixed in the curveball more often than pure velocity. He said, "I’m definitely trying to get to spots better because you can’t just blow guys away," and added, "I think that can be a large part of what helps out throughout the course of the game, because it puts that in a hitter’s head now that they have to think about it."
Seven Scoreless Innings
Tracy called the outing, "He was awesome, just awesome." Tolle’s seven scoreless innings came after he had also struck out 11 Yankees in April, another sharp showing against the same opponent.
The win was Boston’s ninth straight quality start, a run the Red Sox had not put together since 2013. For a team looking for momentum, Tolle’s line stood out as more than a near miss at perfection: it was another start that kept the rotation stringing together results while the offense backed it with early runs.
