Payton Tolle’s 11 strikeouts not enough as Red Sox fall to Yankees, New York completes series sweep

BOSTON — The Red Sox have been searching for a spark 24 games into the season, and on Thursday night, Payton Tolle delivered one of the club’s best pitching performances, second only to Ranger Suárez’s eight scoreless innings against the Tigers earlier in the homestand.

Tolle was electric in his 2026 debut, allowing just one run, a game-tying solo homer to Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the fifth. The left-hander gave up three hits and one walk while striking out a career-high 11, but the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead as Boston fell 4-2.

Boston sinks to 9-16, dropping seven games behind the Yankees (16-9) in the American League East. New York completed the three-game sweep, outscoring the Red Sox 12-3 and holding Boston to just 13 hits over 27 innings. The Sox managed only four hits Tuesday, five on Wednesday, and four in the series finale.

Despite the offensive struggles, Tolle was the story for Boston, looking dominant on the mound after not pitching since April 12. The Red Sox had held the left-hander back due to potential weekend rainouts and the sudden need for a starter following Sonny Gray’s right hamstring injury on Marathon Monday.

Tolle ran into trouble in the fourth after loading the bases with nobody out, but the hard-throwing left-hander settled in. He struck out Giancarlo Stanton on a swinging changeup, got Randal Grichuk to fly out to shallow right, and then froze Trent Grisham with a cutter to escape the jam.

After the strikeout, Tolle let out a roar on the mound, showing his emotion to the Fenway crowd.

“I think about being an energy giver, don’t be an energy vampire,” Tolle said.

Boston struck first in the second inning, capitalizing on a defensive miscue that extended the frame. After a throwing error allowed Trevor Story to reach with two outs, Marcelo Mayer lined an RBI double off the Green Monster the other way, giving the Red Sox their first lead of the series.

Mayer’s double extended his hitting streak to three games, and he has now recorded a hit in 14 of 21 games this season.

New York answered in the fifth when Jazz Chisholm Jr. launched a solo homer that curled around the Pesky Pole, just out of reach of Gold Glove right fielder Wilyer Abreu, tying the game at 1-1.

In the home half of the inning, Carlos Narváez launched his first home run of the season, a solo shot into the Green Monster seats to put Boston back on top, 2-1. It marked the club’s first home run since Sunday, when Willson Contreras went deep against the Tigers.

Narváez now has 16 career home runs, four of which have come against his former team, the Yankees.

Tolle returned for the sixth and finished his outing in style, retiring the side in order while striking out Judge and Stanton.

“I think the off-speed pitches came up big for me in some spots, but also with sinkers and cutters too,” Tolle said. “It helped to have wrinkles.”

The 23-year-old also became the youngest pitcher in MLB to record 11-plus strikeouts while allowing no more than one earned run over six-plus innings against the Yankees since Chris Sale on Aug. 22, 2012, when he was with the White Sox.

He also became the first Red Sox pitcher to open a game with five straight strikeouts against the Yankees since Casey Fossum on Aug. 27, 2002.

“He was really good,” Alex Cora said. “The fastball played early, then he started mixing up his pitches, he was impressive, he was under control, the moment wasn’t too big for him, and he pounded the strike zone, which is the most important thing.”

Tolle threw 93 pitches, 63 for strikes, with his fastball topping out at 99.5 mph. He mixed in 18 sinkers and generated 18 swings and misses, per Baseball Savant.

Once Tolle exited, the Yankees immediately applied pressure. Left-hander Danny Coulombe allowed three straight singles to load the bases with one out in the seventh. He struck out Austin Wells for the second out, but Cora then turned to Greg Weissert, who surrendered a go-ahead two-run pinch-hit single to Cody Bellinger, followed by an RBI single from Judge to make it 4-2.

Boston had no response in the bottom of the seventh, going down in order on just four pitches against Cam Schlittler.

Schlittler was dominant, tossing eight innings and allowing two runs (one earned) on four hits with one walk while striking out five. He capped his outing with back-to-back strikeouts in the eighth. David Bednar then worked a perfect ninth to secure the save and complete the Yankees’ three-game sweep.

Roman Anthony missed the final two games of the series, dealing with a back issue. The outfielder suffered the injury on a swing on Tuesday night and felt pain in his upper back. 

“Right now, I think I’m in a good spot and I’ll be able to play in the next couple days,” Anthony said after the game. 

He described it as, “Just a weird thing that happened on a swing.”

Anthony said he felt the tightness in his back on a lineout to the shortstop in Tuesday’s 4-0 loss. 

“It was weird,” Anthony said. “I felt something. It was really cold, so I didn’t have a great idea as to what it was. I went back in the dugout and watched back on the video. I hit it and I kind of made a face and went back in the dugout and put my helmet down and felt something and knew it was a little bit strange.”

Anthony finished the game but he said he didn’t feel great the next day when he woke up.

“That upper left scap (scapula) area of my back into my neck,” he explained.

The injury is unrelated to the back issue he had last season, which held him out of games in August. Anthony also missed the final 22 games of the 2025 season with a left oblique strain. 

“I think it’s good that I know where I was at last year with the oblique and how severe that was, and don’t feel that way about this at all,” Anthony said.

Anthony is hitting just .225 with one homer, one triple, and three doubles in 22 games this season. 

“I’ll see where I’m at tomorrow,” he said. “I think I made good progress from just yesterday to today. So I think just one of those things, wake up, see how you feel, and do everything I can to play tomorrow, for sure. But see where we’re at tomorrow.”

The homestand was filled with uninspiring baseball, with very few moments for Red Sox fans to celebrate. Outside of Suarez’s eight-inning gem, Masataka Yoshida’s walk-off on Friday night, and Tolle’s season debut, the rest was something left to be desired. Offensively, the Sox scored two runs or fewer in six of the seven games, including just three runs and 13 hits over their three games against the Yankees. Overall the Red Sox have scored two or fewer in 12 of their first 25 games this season. 

Narváez was pretty candid after the game regarding the mindset of “it’s early.”

"We've been saying I know it's early, but we cannot have that mentality, Okay, it's time to go,” Narvaez said after the game. “We got to flush it. Of course, it doesn't feel right, but we got to flush it. 

“We got six important games on the road. We cannot be stuck in the mindset like okay, yeah, we gotta be better. No, of course we know we gotta be better. We're working on it. We work every single game, every single day, and, it’s just about time, OK. 

“At the same time we’re grinding. The most important thing is the next three games, and then the next three games, that's gotta be the focus right now."

Boston is set to go on the road and play a crucial three-game series in Baltimore. Cora and the Sox will see if time away from Fenway Park will help ignite the struggling roster. 

“We’re about to see,” Cora said. “We like it at home, we like playing at Fenway, we like to sleep in our beds. I know it was a tough one but two tough teams, they pitched a lot better than us, they got clutch hits and we got swept. That’s it.”

The Red Sox will open a three-game series in Baltimore on Friday at 7:05 p.m. Right-hander Brayan Bello (1-2, 6.75 ERA) will start for Boston. The Orioles have not announced their starter. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.