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BOSTON — Red Sox rookie starter Payton Tolle woke up Friday with a fever and body aches.
“I laid in bed for a long time this morning,” Tolle said. “And then got here, got some DayQuil in me.”
Despite feeling sick, Tolle dominated the Yankees with his longest career scoreless outing. He led the Red Sox to a 6-1 victory at Fenway Park.
“I think that’s why I hit the wall so hard in the seventh — just not sleeping great and being a lazy bum in bed all day," Tolle said.
The 23-year-old lefty retired the first 16 Yankees batters before allowing a one-out single to Spencer Jones in the sixth inning. It was the only hit he allowed in seven scoreless innings. He gave up two walks and struck out seven.
“He was awesome,” interim manager Chad Tracy said. “Yeah, awesome. I don’t really know much to say about it other than awesome. Pounded the strike zone. Was ahead in the count all night. Struck out seven. Had his secondaries working. Was landing curveballs. Used the cutter very effectively. He was just really, really good.”
Tolle was set on pitching throughout the day despite being under the weather.
“This morning, I was like, ‘I don’t feel great, but I’m gonna pitch today,’” he said. “And there were a couple times where I was like, ‘Do I tell anybody? Should I just push through this?’”
Some vitamin boosters also helped him push through.
“It was a grinder one,” Tolle said.
He didn’t show his usual level of emotion on the mound.
“All business because he was very focused on making sure he got through it and conserved his energy,” Tracy said.
With his body aching, Tolle didn’t have his best velocity either. He averaged 94.4 mph with his 30 four-seam fastballs, down from his yearly average of 96.1 mph.
“I’m definitely trying to like get to spots better because you can’t just blow guys away,” Tolle said. “But there’s also some points you get to two strikes ... or something and it’s like, ‘We gotta let it eat. We gotta go.’”
Tolle, who has reached triple-digits with his fastball this season, topped out at 96.4 mph.
“Felt like going into the outing, we may not see a bunch of 98s and touching 99s,” Tracy said. “But to watch him pitch the way he did, it was awesome. He knew he might be a couple ticks down, but he just navigated the strike zone and moved the ball around and used his arsenal. It was awesome.”
The crowd gave Tolle a nice ovation after Jones’ hit in the sixth.
Tolle joked that he began thinking “way too early” about how he hadn’t yet allowed a baserunner.
“I might have thought about it third inning,” Tolle said. “Whenever those guys that have thrown no hitters or perfect games and they say, ‘I didn’t think about it until the end of the game,’ it’s like, ‘All right, dude. You thought about it at least once in there. You looked up at the scoreboard at some point.’”
Tolle was efficient throughout. He struck out the side on 10 pitches in the second inning. He threw 61 of his 88 pitches for strikes (69.3%).
“Mostly just watching him jump ahead strike-one constantly, that was the most impressive part,” Tracy said.
Tolle induced 11 swings and misses: four with his four-seam fastball, four with his cutter and three with his curveball.
“I really took the best one-inning-at-a-time approach that I’ve had all year with it,” Tolle said. “It’s like, ‘All right, everything you got for the first and the second.’ And then it just kind of kept going and going.”
Red Sox fans gave him a standing ovation as he walked off after recording the final out of the seventh inning.
“It was really cool,” Tolle said. “I figured it was my last (inning), too. So I took a moment. It was a slow walk in just because I wanted to look up and take it in again. It’s a good environment. Friday night against the Yankees is going to be a great environment here. So yeah, take it in, and it was a lot of fun.”
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