FORT MYERS, Fla. — George Lombard Jr. had Garrett Crochet’s number on Wednesday, going 2 for 2 with a home run and a single off the Red Sox ace.

But while the Yankees’ No. 1 prospect got the better of Crochet, the Red Sox lefty was otherwise dominant.

Crochet sent down eight straight batters between Lombard’s two at bats, striking out three while consistently hitting 97 mph in Wednesday’s 4-0 loss. Crochet was ultimately charged with three runs over 2 2/3 innings — which were spread across four frames — and threw 34 of his 53 pitches for strikes.

Lombard, a 20-year-old shortstop currently ranked as MLB’s No. 46 prospect according to Baseball America, led off the game by crushing a 1-2 fastball 392 feet to clear JetBlue Park’s Green Monster. Crochet responded by retiring the next three batters to end the inning, sent the Yankees down 1-2-3 in the second and got two more quick outs to start the third before Lombard stepped up again.

Crochet couldn’t put the highly regarded prospect away to complete the inning, allowing a hard-hit single past the diving Trevor Story at shortstop, and from there Crochet was lifted for minor leaguer Max Carlson, who allowed the inherited runner to score on an RBI double by Cohasset’s Ben Rice.

Crochet came back out one more time to start the top of the fourth, allowing him an opportunity to get accustomed to four up-and-downs. The big lefty faced one batter and allowed a hard single off the wall to Paul DeJong, who later came around to score as well, accounting for the third run against Crochet.

Tolle dominates

Payton Tolle came on in the top of the sixth for what was effectively his third start of the spring, and the rookie left-hander was absolutely brilliant.

After walking DeJong to start his outing, Tolle got a strikeout, DeJong was thrown out trying to steal second, and then Tolle got another punch out to end the inning. He then struck out the side in the seventh and got two more punch outs in the eighth to work around a Braden Shewmake single, finishing his outing with seven strikeouts over three scoreless innings.

Most encouragingly, Tolle’s fastball averaged 98 mph and topped out at 100.4 mph, with that one freezing Duke Ellis for a called strike three to end the seventh.

Slaten allows solo shot

For the most part Justin Slaten was much better on Wednesday after a rough showing his last time out on Sunday, but he didn’t get through his inning unscathed. After striking out the first two batters he faced, the right-hander allowed a solo home run to Rice, who finished 2 for 3 with two RBI.

Slaten retired the next batter he faced to end the inning.

Coming up next

The Red Sox will go with a bullpen day on Thursday against the Phillies. T.J. Sikkema will get the start followed by Wyatt Olds, Jacob Webb, Kyle Keller and Ryan Watson. Connelly Early is expected to get the start Friday against the Tigers.