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BOSTON — Jake Rogers spent six seasons with the Tigers and caught 60 Tarik Skubal starts before being traded to the Orioles, then the Red Sox, in the past couple weeks. His first start in a Boston uniform Friday night featured a sort of flashback.
With Rogers behind the plate, rookie Payton Tolle struck out 14 Athletics hitters in six strong innings, mowing them down with a fastball that averaged 97.6 mph and a complete pitch mix that kept hitters guessing all night. Tolle allowed one run on two hits and didn’t issue a walk in what might have been the best start of his career.
The performance, Rogers said, reminded him of Skubal, the two-time reigning American League Cy Young winner.
“That’s how it felt tonight,” said Rogers, who had two doubles in a 13-1 Red Sox rout. “It felt kinda like when me and Skub were on the run in ‘24. I could call anything and they were gonna have weak contact or swing and miss. It felt like he had it tonight.”
Tolle’s night started with an 11-pitch first inning that included two strikeouts and a 99.5 mph fastball to Jonah Heim to end the inning. He struck out five of the first six batters he faced — and nine of 12 in four perfect innings. All the while, the lefty was bouncing around the mound and celebrating as he picked up momentum.
“The first inning, watching a bunch of 99s, you see the ball coming out of his hand and you see the line on it,” said interim manager Chad Tracy. “He (was) just filling up the zone. When you see him like that, you feel like: ‘This has got a chance to be pretty good.’ It’s pretty telling when he’s got that fastball early and he’s filling up the zone. And he sustained it.”
In the third, with Boston leading 5-0 after a big inning off starter Jack Perkins, Tolle benefited from some spectacular defense by center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela. Second baseman Jonathan Ornelas lifted a liner to shallow center and Rafaela, getting a good jump on it, made a fantastic diving play to end the inning. Tolle celebrated on the mound, then lifted Rafaela into the air in the dugout after the inning.
“I think things might have gone differently if Rafa didn’t make that catch,” Tolle said. “That was incredible.”
After Tyler Soderstrom led off the fifth inning with a solo homer that would ensure Tolle wouldn’t have a perfect game or no-hitter, the lefty settled back in immediately and got two more quick punchouts. In the sixth inning, he allowed a leadoff hit to Max Muncy, then struck out Ornelas, Henry Bolte and Jacob Wilson to finish his night with a career-high 14 Ks.
“I try to think that I’m at that level all the time,” he said of his performance. “Obviously, that’s not quite how that goes. Just being able to command fastballs is big, and getting the off-speed going, too.”
With Tolle at just 84 pitches through six innings, Tracy made the decision to pull him in order to get long man Raymond Burgos, who was just called up from Triple-A Worcester, into the game to finish the blowout. With the Sox trying to limit the innings of young starters like Tolle and Jake Bennett down the stretch, there was no thought of letting Tolle try to chase down a 20-strikeout night or a complete game.
“If the score’s a lot closer, you might try, but with the score the way it was and what we’re doing to try to take care of those guys, it felt like that was enough,” Tracy said.
Tolle got 24 swings and misses on his pitches, the most by a Red Sox pitcher in more than three years. He became the second pitcher in Red Sox history, age 23 or younger, to record 12+ strikeouts without walking a batter in a game. The other? Roger Clemens in the first of his two 20-strikeout games in 1986 against Seattle.
Tolle’s 14-strikeout output was the most by a Red Sox pitcher, ever, in a six-inning start. He’s the only MLB pitcher, at least since pitches were first tracked in 1988, to record 14+ strikeouts in a game where he threw fewer than 85 pitches. And he became the first Red Sox pitcher to have 14 or more strikeouts since Chris Sale struck out 17 Rockies in a memorable outing at Fenway on May 14, 2019.
“Good company,” Tolle said. “Means a lot.”
Tolle joked that a good night of sleep led to increased velocity and a sharp pitch mix Friday night. He gave credit to Rogers, who had caught him in a bullpen session earlier in the week, and said he has felt more capable of pitching deeper into games as the year has gone on. Counting strikeouts, Tolle said, is hard to avoid, though he joked that he “can’t count very high” which eliminates a potential distraction. One thing he couldn’t ignore was hearing loud “Tolle! Tolle! Tolle!” chants after he pumped his fist coming off the mound after getting Wilson to chase a 97.1 mph heater to end the sixth inning — and his outing.
“That’s a first for me,” Tolle said. “It was pretty cool. I’m not gonna lie.”
Tolle’s performance helped the Red Sox win their ninth in a row. They have won 27 of 30 games in one of the best stretches in franchise history.
“It doesn’t get much better than that,” said Tracy. “He was electric. He was really, really good.”
More Red Sox coverage
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- Red Sox’ Adley Rutschman to begin rehab assignment Saturday
- Red Sox reactions: Win streak hits nine straight in rout over Athletics
- Red Sox’ Chad Tracy gives encouraging injury updates on Roman Anthony, Adley Rutschman
- Red Sox roster moves: Rookie reliever claimed by Angels, veteran pitcher signed
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