Boston rookie left-hander Payton Tolle will make his second major league start on Friday, facing the Arizona Diamondbacks on six days’ rest in Phoenix.
Tolle (0-0, 3.38 ERA) gave up two runs in 5 1/3 innings but did not receive a decision in his debut, a 4-2 Red Sox home loss to Pittsburgh and right-hander Paul Skenes last Friday.
Tolle will face lefty Eduardo Rodriguez (6-8, 5.40) in the first game of a three-game series as the Red Sox continue their postseason push.
Boston (78-63) is 3 1/2 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East and 4 1/2 games ahead of the Seattle Mariners for the second AL wild-card berth.
“He hasn’t pitched in a regular rotation, so we have to take care of him,” Boston manager Alex Cora said of Tolle.
Tolle, Boston’s 2024 second-round draft pick, has been slow-played in his first professional season, logging 97 innings in 21 appearances, including his one Red Sox start.
“Just let him be,” Cora said of the approach going forward. “I think there’s a reason he’s here. The pitching group, they’re aware of what he needs to do to keep getting better, and we’re going to keep helping him out.”
Tolle’s debut “was outstanding,” Cora continued, “and if he can do that the rest of the month, we’re in a really good place.”
The Red Sox will play their second game without rookie Roman Anthony, who was placed on the injured list Wednesday with a left oblique strain suffered during an at-bat in the fourth inning Tuesday in an 11-7 win over the Cleveland Guardians.
Anthony said he felt a twinge on a check-swing before striking out on the next pitch. He missed four games in early August with mid-back tightness and is expected to miss about a month after an MRI showed the extent of the injury.
“This is definitely worse in terms of the way it feels,” Anthony said.
The Red Sox already are without outfielder Wilyer Abreu, who has been on the injured list since Aug. 18 with a right calf strain.
The Diamondbacks lost outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to a season-ending torn right anterior cruciate ligament injury Monday, when he planted to avoid a collision on a fly ball caught by center fielder Blaze Alexander in the sixth inning of a 7-5, 10-inning loss to the Texas Rangers.
Rodriguez, who spent his first six seasons with Boston, gave up four hits in six scoreless innings in his most recent outing, a 6-1 road victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday. He kept the Diamondbacks even with Tyler Glasnow, who took a no-hitter into the sixth and wound up being tagged with the loss.
“Eddie just let us get our footing. He didn’t back down, and he threw up as many zeros as Glasnow did,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said.
The Diamondbacks (70-71) are 5 1/2 games behind the New York Mets for the third National League wild-card spot, with San Francisco and Cincinnati to jump over.
“Every game counts,” Rodriguez said. “We don’t focus on where we’re at in the standings or something like that, we just focus on winning every game and whatever happens, happens.”
Rodriguez is 0-2 with an 8.31 ERA in two appearances against the Red Sox, both starts coming when he was with Detroit.
Bregman is 8-for-24 with three homers against him, Trevor Story is 5-for-10 and Nathaniel Lowe is 4-for-9.
–Field Level Media
–Field Level Media
