{"id":326617,"date":"2025-09-19T15:10:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T15:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/326617\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T15:10:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T15:10:13","slug":"boston-red-sox-rookie-reaches-99-7-mph-cut-it-loose-in-first-relief-outing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/326617\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston Red Sox rookie reaches 99.7 mph, \u2018cut it loose\u2019 in first relief outing"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2014 The radar gun at Fenway Park flashed 100 mph when Red Sox<\/a> 22-year-old lefty Payton Tolle struck out AL Rookie of the Year front-runner Nick Kurtz swinging to end the fifth inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw it. I was like, \u2018Oh, man, I sure hope that stays 100, doesn\u2019t roll down to 99,\u2019\u201d Tolle said.<\/p>\n

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Unfortunately for Tolle, the fastball clocked at 99.7 mph on Statcast, falling just shy of triple digits. Fortunately for the Red Sox, though, Tolle showed promise in his first big-league relief appearance.<\/p>\n

The Red Sox lost 5-3 to the Athletics<\/a> on Thursday to drop the three-game series, 2-1. Starter Brayan Bello lasted only four innings; the offense struggled; Trevor Story committed two errors; and Boston\u2019s lead over Cleveland for the final wild-card spot dropped to 1\u00bd games.<\/p>\n

Tolle\u2019s outing was arguably the lone bright spot. The rookie allowed one unearned run, three hits and no walks while striking out four in three innings.<\/p>\n

\u201cAggressive with the fastball,\u201d manager Alex Cora said. \u201cThrew strikes with the offspeed pitches. Was in command. That was good to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Red Sox announced Wednesday that Tolle will pitch out of the bullpen for the rest of this season<\/a>. Cora and team decision-makers need to figure out the best role for him. Is he best used as a multi-inning reliever or a one-inning power reliever?<\/p>\n

Seven of the eight four-seam fastballs he threw in his first inning of work were harder than 98 mph. The other was 97.4 mph. His fastball velocity dipped into the 95-97 mph range in his second inning.<\/p>\n

The Red Sox made it a point in the offseason to add velocity to their bullpen. They are tied for fifth in the major leagues in average fastball velocity among relievers (95.3 mph)<\/a>. That\u2019s up from 94.2 mph (20th in the league) last year.<\/p>\n

Tolle is another option to provide hard, swing-and-miss stuff when the Red Sox need strikeouts late in games.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have to make sure now, OK, that was cool and he did an amazing job but where he fits,\u201d Cora said. \u201cThe first inning was electric. The second was OK and the velo dipped down. So we\u2019ll talk about it and see what\u2019s next for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tolle pitched mostly in the low-90s at TCU, but the Red Sox worked with him to increase velocity after drafting him in the second round in July 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something that I\u2019ve kind of worked on all year, is trying to get velo early (in games),\u201d he said. \u201cInstead of hitting those PRs (personal records) the third, fourth, fifth innings, we want to hit those PRs in the first inning. And that\u2019s what is going to help drive that intensity for the whole game. So I think maintaining velo\u2019s great. But there\u2019s no reason to hold anything back early.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tolle said pitching out of the bullpen was different.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI feel like did a good job of preparing well down there. Holty (bullpen coach Chris Holt) had a good plan for me. So stayed loose and then was just able to go out there and cut it loose. I think the biggest thing is I just was able to kind of turn off the brain and just pitch. It was good and good to finally get it under my belt.\u201d<\/p>\n

More Red Sox coverage<\/p>\n

Read the original article on MassLive<\/a>. Add MassLive<\/a> as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 The radar gun at Fenway Park flashed 100 mph when Red Sox 22-year-old lefty Payton Tolle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[38452,858,5,5172,135,6920,459,3973,89,1035],"class_list":{"0":"post-326617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-100-mph","9":"tag-alex-cora","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-brayan-bello","12":"tag-cleveland","13":"tag-fifth-inning","14":"tag-nick-kurtz","15":"tag-payton-tolle","16":"tag-red-sox","17":"tag-trevor-story"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115231603402535118","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}