Payton Tolle and Power Rankings
Nobody truly knew what to expect, not even Chad Tolle.
Tolle hadn't really had time to let the news of his son's promotion sink in, getting word Thursday afternoon that 21-year-old Payton would be starting against Paul Skenes at Fenway Park Friday night. There were travel arrangements to make. People to call. And, eventually, a ballgame to watch.
Chad had no idea the Red Sox were going to save an empty seat for his wife, Jina, who had tragically passed away on May 9, 2024, just a couple of months before the couple's eldest son would be drafted by the Red Sox.
He wasn't sure exactly how watching Payton pitch on this stage, in front of this many people, would feel once all the friends and family settled into their Fenway surroundings.
And Chad certainly was unaware how this night would ultimately be punctuated.
"I never even thought about this moment," Chad said while standing on the nearly empty Fenway field just about 20 minutes following the conclusion of the Red Sox' 4-2 loss to the Pirates. "It’s incredible. We have always played this one game at a time forever. We were excited when he got his first college offer from a small college all the way up to Wichita State to TCU and then working up through the minor leagues. I don’t know what I was thinking because I never thought I would have this day."
Payton Tolle was pitching for the Boston Red Sox. That's what everybody knew. What that ultimately would lead to was anybody's guess.
By the time Tolle hugged his last well-wisher just outside the Red Sox's dugout and finally headed back into the home clubhouse at 10:17 p.m., everyone had their answers.
For the Red Sox's fans, there was additional excitement.
For the Red Sox's manager, there was another wave of hope.
For the player under the spotlight, there were feelings never felt before.
And for Chad, there was the long embrace that stopped time for just long enough.
"It’s never fun until it’s over," he said. "I’m a nervous wreck."
About those fans ...
From the minutes the gates opened until Tolle left the mound with one out in the sixth inning, the appreciation and anticipation were thickly spread throughout the sellout crowd. It was perhaps the hottest ticket of the season, and the standing ovation delivered to the rookie upon his exit suggested the pitcher had paid off on the promise.
Sure, the Red Sox lost. But the fans strewn around Jersey St. wearing fake Tolle mustaches defined the reality of the night: This was about what Tolle delivered, not the scoreboard.
"My goodness. Chills. A lot of them. A lot of chills," said Tolle after his 5 1/3-inning, three-hit, two-run, eight-strikeout debut. " I tried to get out there a little early to take it in, just everything I could. But it was incredible. I came off the mountain after the first (inning) and I couldn't feel my feet. It was just the greatest experience of my life. And it was the greatest atmosphere in baseball. So, I was very just proud of it. And I'll look back on this day for a long time. Just thinking about this moment."
And about that final walk off the mound, when he raised his hand to the sky to give the symbol for "love" to his father in the stands? "I was fighting back tears. I’m not gonna lie. It was special and just, the work I feel like I put in for a long time, kind of coming to fruition in that 30-second little moment there."
And how about the manager ...
Most late-August nights that include a team losing a two-run lead in the middle of a pennant race will elicit postgame press conferences from the manager that are anything but optimistic. This wasn't one of those.
Alex Cora understood that while his team fell 1/2-game in back of the Yankees in the wild card race with the loss, there was a big win within the defeat. That was thanks to Tolle.
With an as-advertised high-90's fastball, Tolle offered Cora a potential answer to one of the key questions facing the Red Sox: Who, besides Garrett Crochet, Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito, could be relied on to make key starts down the stretch?
"I think people are going to like him in this town," Cora said. "Very polite kid from everything I hear. So he's going to be good with you guys, accountable. So it was a great night for us. It sucked that we didn't win, but the overall pitcher, that was a step forward for the organization."
And, of course, there was the man of the three hours ...
Most in attendance at Fenway hadn't been formally introduced to Tolle other than through video clips and word of mouth. But seeing the animated mountain of a young man actually perform in a Red Sox uniform clearly painted a much more definitive picture.
He not only held his own against one of the game's absolute best in Skenes, but in some ways actually outperformed the All-Star. Tolle became the first Red Sox pitcher since Daisuke Matsuzaka in 2007 to strike out as many as eight batters in his very first MLB game.
Using his fastball on 81 percent of his 84 pitches, Tolle induced 14 swings and misses, which was three more than Skenes.
He might not have been immune to the anxiety that comes with such an event, but Tolle certainly didn't let any of it impact his product.
"There was a couple times where I might have gotten caught up a little bit in, ‘Oh, man, this is really cool. These are guys that I’ve watched before,’ stuff like that," he admitted. "But that's something that, now that it's done, I’ll look back and I’ll be able to say, ‘Okay, baseball. Baseball. Just figures in the box.’"
And, finally, there was the family ...
After executing one of the most genuine and engaging postgame press conferences a Red Sox player has presented in years, Tolle bolted for the field. There waiting for him was a group of 30-or-so friends, family, and supporters, each of whom would ultimately get a huge mustache-covered smile and hug from Payton.
But it was those first two hugs, the ones delivered to Chad and Tolle's younger brother, 18-year-old Charlie, that lasted the longest.
The night would ultimately end with the group of Fenway newbies navigating their way through the dark, vacant stands in the iconic ballpark. But it would sure seem that Payton Tolle's already inspiring story was just getting going.
"He came out, and I turned to all the guys in the infield and said 'I think you guys are really, really cool,'" Tolle said when describing Cora ending his outing. "The rush of it and trying to look up and try to find my dad, but and then the other side of that of looking up and, hearing and my mom still saying, ‘You're still a hack’ but very pleased with it. Just kind of came off the field and I gave it gave it everything that I got and competed, had fun. And that's the bottom line."