Payton Tolle shuts out Jays for eight in victory

The Red Sox haven’t hid the strong possibility that Tolle wasn’t going to pitch this weekend, but it’s a tough break for fantasy managers hoping for an outing against the Rays during playoff action. There’s still a chance that Tolle starts Sunday’s series finale, but the Boston hasn’t finalized their pitching plans beyond having Brayan Bello start Saturday’s contest.

Bello draws the starting assignment for Saturday’s game against the Rays with Payton Tolle apparently being skipped in the rotation in an effort to manage his workload and set up Boston’s rotation for the postseason. Obviously, Bello has had more success coming out of the bullpen as opposed to being used as a traditional starter. Still, this is a decent spot for fantasy purposes in pitcher-friendly Tropicana Field.

Saturday would be Payton Tolle’s turn, following by Patrick Sandoval on Sunday, but it looks like the Red Sox might be tweaking things. Depending on what they do, they could be aiming to move Tolle ahead of Ranger Suarez as a potential Game 2 starter in their likely Wild Card series.

Tolle didn’t get the victory, as Erik Miller and Garrett Whitlock combined to give the tying run in the seventh before the Red Sox went back ahead. Tolle, though, was the star today. He fanned four in a row to begin the game, and he went on to limit the Royals to four singles and one walk. His ERA is sitting at 3.02 through 25 starts. He’ll face the Rays next time out.

Tolle hardly seems to care that he’s now 40+ innings over his previous high. His velocity was up about one mph from his season averages today, and he reached double figures in strikeouts for the third time this year. He was actually hit really hard when the Orioles made contact against him; all but one of the nine balls in play he gave up was hard hit and the overall average was 100.3 mph. Still, it resulted in only four hits allowed. Tolle is 9-6 with a 3.15 ERA. He’d have a Rookie of the Year case most seasons, but he’s still behind at least Kevin McGonigle and Parker Messick in the AL this year. He’ll likely face the Royals next weekend.

After entering the fifth with a 3-2 lead, Tolle loaded the bases with no outs on a HBP, a walk and a bunt single versus the bottom-third of the lineup. Randy Arozarena then drilled a game-tying single. At that point, Tolle stepped it up, throwing several of his hardest pitches of the game to strike out two and get Cal Raleigh to fly out on a game-high 98.4-mph fastball to end the threat. Afterwards, Tolle clearly should have been told, “great job, hit the showers, kid.” But the Red Sox brought him back out to give up one more run. The one fastball he threw in the sixth checked in at 95.5 mph. It’s the first time in seven starts that Tolle has allowed more than three runs. He remained 8-6 with a 3.23 ERA. He’ll likely face the Orioles on Sunday.

Tolle carried a shutout into the fifth inning at loanDepot park before giving up a bases-loaded sacrifice fly from Brian Navarreto. He also served up a game-tying solo homer to Heriberto Hernández in the ensuing frame. He generated 17 swinging strikes, including 11 on his fastball alone, and finished with seven strikeouts. He’ll face the Mariners on Monday to kick off a two-start week.

Tolle was cruising along, carrying a shutout into the fifth inning, before running into some trouble. He surrendered back-to-back doubles and loaded the bases with two outs in the frame, which led to a two-run double by Gabriel Moreno. He finished with six strikeouts and only handed out a pair of free passes. The 23-year-old rookie southpaw has looked like a legitimate fantasy ace, working into the sixth inning while allowing three earned runs or fewer in five consecutive starts since July 27. He’s also posted a sublime 38/7 K/BB ratio across 30 1/3 innings during that span. He’ll try to keep things rolling with a favorable road matchup against the Marlins on Tuesday.

One of the two hits was a solo homer by Tyler Soderstrom that just skirted over the short right-center fence at Fenway, and that accounted for all the damage done tonight. Tolle’s stuff ticked up a notch or two today, as he touched 99.5 mph and averaged 97.6 on his four-seamer. He achieved whiffs on a stunning 24-of-49 swings by the Athletics. He’ll look to keep it rolling against the Blue Jays in what is currently slated to be a matchup with All-Star Game starter Dylan Cease.

Tolle gave up nine hits and 11 hard-hit balls, but he never did break before departing with the game tied at two. The Red Sox prevailed in the end, winning their fifth straight game that Tolle has started. They had been 4-9 through his first 13 starts. Tolle will take a 3.30 ERA into a home start against the A’s next weekend.