Red Sox Veteran Finds Silver Lining In Payton Tolle’s Performance

Boston Red Sox starter Payton Tolle’s second start wasn’t quite as stellar as his first. He surrendered five runs over three innings while striking out just two batters in a 10-5 loss.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are one of the best teams in baseball at hitting left-handed pitching. The Pittsburgh Pirates are one of the worst, making Friday’s start a huge step up in competition.

Nobody enters the big leagues without growing pains, even the best of the best. Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman started his major league career 1-36 before going on a tear. Dustin Pedroia hit .191 over the first 30 games of his career and went on to win a Most Valuable Player Award.

The point is, it’s not an easy game. Nobody is successful one hundred percent of the time. Some players, such as Tolle, cruise through the minor leagues, but nobody hits 1.000 and nobody keeps a 0.00 ERA. Bregman knows that as well as anyone.

“It’s good sometimes to fail. It’s not always a bad thing,” Bregman said. “Being able to fail and get yourself out of it is big time, especially for guys who never failed before in the game. It’s a game of failure, you’ve gotta learn how to dig yourself out of it when you get into it.”

Tolle leaned on his secondary pitches more often on Friday, but couldn’t command them consistently. He’ll go into his next start knowing he can’t rely solely on his four-seam fastball to beat opponents. He’ll focus on fine-tuning his breaking balls before his next start.

“He’ll learn from it, make some adjustments, bounce back in his next start. Can’t wait for him to get back out there,” Bregman said.

Tolle’s next start will either come on Wednesday against the Athletics in Sacramento or Friday against the New York Yankees.