Red Sox might tweak rotation, push back Tolle

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.

Sandoval tossed a clean first inning before things unraveled for him in the second. With a runner on and two outs, he proceeded to surrender four runs on three hits and two walks. Sandoval returned to record the first two outs in the third inning before departing at 68 pitches. The 29-year-old left-hander ends the day with a 4.99 ERA, 1.79 WHIP, and a 62/29 K/BB ratio across 57 2/3 innings. He’ll take on the Rays in Tampa Bay on Sunday.

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.

Sandoval struck out seven with 16 whiffs and a fine 34 percent CSW, but he gave up plenty of hard contact, and as per usual this year, not enough of it was on the ground. He’s now 1-5 with a 4.58 ERA, though it should be noted that the Red Sox have prevailed in all five of his no-decisions. He’ll likely face the Rangers on Tuesday and then finish out the regular season in the rotation. The Red Sox will just hope they don’t need him as a starter in October.

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.

Sandoval struck out two, needing 80 pitches to record 12 outs. The left-hander was making his 10th start since returning from elbow surgery, and he’s up to a 4.41 ERA. A seven-run debacle against the Pirates in mid-August is doing a lot of the damage. Still, Sandoval doesn’t have much fantasy upside next time out against his former team, the Angels.

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.

On most nights, allowing just one earned run would be enough for a pitcher to, at worst, get hit with a no-decision. Unfortunately for Sandoval, when the opposing pitcher is Cam Schlittler, as it was on Friday, one earned run can prove to be too much. Sandoval’s lone blemish came in the third inning when he allowed a solo homer to Paul Goldschmidt to put the Yankees up 1-0. Sandoval wouldn’t allow another run the rest of the night and was pulled in the sixth inning after loading the bases after recording just one out. It’s a tough way to close out the month for Sandoval, who allowed two earned runs or fewer in four of the five starts he made this month. If he can replicate tonight’s outing in his next start, Sandoval could find himself on the winning side of things when he toes the rubber on Wednesday at home against the Mariners.

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.