Regardless of the outcome of Friday night’s game at Fenway between the Red Sox (75-60) and Pirates (59-76), it will be an evening Boston fans will likely remember for a long time.
On the bump for Pittsburgh is Paul Skenes (8-9, 2.07 ERA), the 23-year-old phenom who currently sits as the National League Cy Young favorite at BetMGM (-3000). Friday marks his first career start at America’s oldest ballpark.
Just that alone is enough to move the needle for a ho-hum late August game against the last place team in the NL East. But when you consider who’s taking the bump for Boston, that’s when Friday’s game moves to the marquee.
22-year-old Payton Tolle is slated to make his major league debut.
“I mean, it seems like he belongs, you know?” manager Alex Cora said of Tolle pregame. “Big dude, you know, with the presence - which is great.
“And you see what’s going on with the Mets right now, and they [were] afraid to [bring up] their guys - and they’re doing a good job, and they expect more. So we’re in this position now, and hopefully it works for us.”
At 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds, Tolle’s size alone is imposing. Add in a Tom Selleck-inspired mustache and a four-seamer that’s thought by many to be the single best pitch in all of MiLB, and the TCU-product already looks the part of a veteran big leaguer.
The dominance of Tolle’s fastball has allowed the 2024 second-round pick to skyrocket through the minors, throwing his first professional pitches around five months ago with High-A Greenville Drive on April 8.
Fast forward to Friday, and Tolle is going toe-to-toe with one of baseball’s biggest stars.
And make no mistake about it - this isn’t a one-off.
“We brought up Payton with the expectation that he’s gonna be able to contribute down the stretch for us,” said Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow pregame. “And exactly what that looks like is to be determined. But he’s, over the last 4-5 months, really impressed at every level.
“He’s made significant strides in terms of his development, and we have every reason to believe that he can be a very good major league starting pitcher.”
As Tolle continues his meteoric rise at the major league level, Cora believes his young rookie pitcher has the perfect guy in the clubhouse to lean on.
“We have a group of guys here in the clubhouse, starting with the ace [Garrett Crochet], that he can actually mirror himself,” said Cora. “Big dude, lefty - just follow his footsteps and he’ll be OK.”
First pitch at Fenway is slated for 7:10 p.m. ET.
WEEI and WEEI.com are your home for Red Sox baseball all season long. Hear every pitch of the 2025 season on 93.7 WEEI-FM in Boston and across the WEEI Shaw's Star Market Red Sox Radio Network.