Boston Red Sox
Boston is in the midst of another winning streak. The club has won nine straight games.
Payton Tolle struck out a career-high 14 batters. Christian Kantosky for The Boston Globe
The entire Boston Red Sox bullpen pitched in Thursday night’s grueling 13-inning walk-off victory over the Chicago White Sox after starter Ranger Suarez only got through three frames.
Payton Tolle understood the assignment given to him on Friday night at Fenway Park. The southpaw starter offered respite for the bullpen by tossing six innings of near-shutdown ball and striking out a career-high 14 batters in the Red Sox’ 13-1 win. His efforts extended the club’s winning streak to nine games.
Tolle, in the middle of a breakout season, took a perfect game into the fifth inning before Athletics left fielder Tyler Soderstrom took him deep to lead off the frame.
Before that, Tolle struck out nine of the first 12 batters he faced to set the tone.
The 23-year-old ended the night with 24 swings-and-misses, no walks, and just two hits allowed on 84 pitches (61 strikes) in a very Tolle-esque performance.
Jake Rogers, who caught Tolle for the first time since being traded to the Red Sox alongside Adley Rutschman on Monday, enjoyed being part of the lefty’s big night.
“It was incredible. He’s got the right mentality for it,” Rogers said of Tolle’s outing to NESN’s Jahmai Webster. “He kind of just says, ‘Here it is, hit it,’ and I like catching guys like that. He had his stuff, and I mean, he made those big-league hitters look silly. It was a fun night.”
Amazingly, Friday wasn’t the first time Tolle carried a perfect game deep into a game this season. He kept the New York Yankees off the bases until the sixth inning on June 26; he retired 16 straight batters and finished with seven scoreless innings and seven strikeouts in a 6-1 victory.
On Friday, Tolle got a little help from center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela, who made an epic diving catch in the third inning to keep Tolle’s perfect game intact at the time.
After the game, Tolle acknowledged things could have gone much differently if Rafaela hadn’t done what he does best with the glove.
Tolle kept things mellow postgame, despite becoming the second Red Sox pitcher ever age 23 or younger to record 12+ strikeouts and 0 walks in a game, joining Roger Clemens (1986). He also became the only MLB pitcher to record 14 strikeouts in a game where he threw fewer than 85 pitches.
“It was good. Felt good,” Tolle said. “It was a great night. It takes a lot off pressure off whenever you score that many runs. It was a fun night. Just gotta keep building off of it.”
Newcomer pitcher Raymond Burgos, who was recalled from Triple-A Worcester on Friday afternoon after Thursday’s team effort (Greg Weissert was sent down as the corresponding move), took over for Tolle in the seventh inning and the rest of the way. Burgos didn’t allow a hit or walk and struck out two in his three-inning Red Sox debut.
Given the final score, Tolle didn’t single-handedly carry Boston to victory. The Red Sox’ red-hot bats led the way by accumulating 15 hits and multiple high-scoring innings.
Boston got on the board first with an assertive five-run second inning off Athletics starting pitcher Jake Perkins. Jarren Duran struck first with a two-run home run, followed by a Jake Rogers RBI double and Wilyer Abreu two-run double to cap off the frame.
The fourth frame brought as many runs for the Red Sox to bring the score to 9-0 in favor of the home team. An error, another Abreu RBI knock, Masataka Yoshida RBI double, and Andruw Monasterio RBI single did the trick to make it a laugher of a contest early on.
Even once Soderstrom got the Athletics in the scoring column, Boston’s bats weren’t done. Back-to-back sacrifice flies by Caleb Durbin and Yoshida in the sixth inning made it a 10-run advantage. Ceddanne Rafaela and Durbin made it a staggering 13-1 lead in the seventh to finish the onslaught of runs for the Sox, who improved their record to 64-51 on the year, and finally achieved .500 (29-29) at Fenway.
Boston will look to make it nine consecutive series wins on Saturday at 4:10 p.m. Eastern Time. Jake Bennett is slated to pitch against Athletics lefty Gage Jump.
Kaley Brown
Kaley Brown is a sports producer for Boston.com, where she covers the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox.
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