Tolle's evolution into dominant starter even draws rave review from rival manager

TORONTO -- It wasn’t another 14-strikeout performance from Red Sox starter Payton Tolle, but it didn’t need to be.

He was dominant in a different way on Thursday afternoon against the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.

Tolle tossed eight innings, allowing zero runs on two hits to help the visitors to a 7-0 win. He struck out four and issued two walks.

His effort, which took only 91 pitches, helped salvage a victory in the four-game series and snap Boston’s five-game losing streak.

Instead of flashing his swing and miss stuff, Tolle found a way to work around early traffic on the base paths and induce soft contact when needed.

The last time Tolle took the mound on Aug. 7, a 13-1 win over the Athletics, he surrendered one run over six innings with the 14 strikeouts. It came on the heels of the Red Sox using eight relievers in an extra-inning game the night before.

On Thursday, his team needed him again for a different reason: To put an end to the worst stretch of losses since the opening road trip of the season.

He did just that, despite not recording his first strikeout until the bottom of the sixth inning when he fanned Charles McAdoo.

“You go throughout a game and you take what they give you,” Tolle said postgame. “They're an aggressive team, they’re going to put the ball in play. We had some great defensive efforts. It was just a complete game from everybody.”

Tolle had at least one baserunner in each of the first three innings, but found a way to work out of it and settle in.

“I was fighting through some timing stuff. I was just not getting ahead of batters,” Tolle said. “I got my direction back. I thought me and [catcher Connor] Wong, we flowed great with each other. I was able to get back ahead of guys and try to work through the game as it came to us.”

Willson Contreras kickstarted the offense by driving in Wilyer Abreu with an RBI double off Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer in the top of the first for a 1-0 lead.

Caleb Durbin then delivered the knockout blow in the top of the eighth off reliever Chase Lee when he turned on an 81 mph sweeper and sent it over the left-field wall for a grand slam. Masataka Yoshida's sac fly and Durbin's RBI single gave Boston two more insurance runs.

Interim manager Chad Tracy raved about Tolle after the game and his ability to save the bullpen from another heavy day of work.

“We needed a deep start,” Tracy said. “We needed a win, he gave us a win. He was awesome.”

The outing even drew praise from opposing manager John Schneider, who credited the young starter for his ability to get in on hitters and record quick outs.

“He's pitching really well,” Schneider said of Tolle. “He's on a heater right now. It was quick outs and not a whole lot of contact quality, so you have to give him credit. He was living up and in on righties. When you're aggressive, you've got to make something happen with the pitches you're swinging at. That was it. We were trying to hunt the heater, we just didn't do much with it."

Tolle seemed to get stronger as the game went along, something Tracy feels is becoming a bit of a trend. It’s one he hopes continues as the Red Sox push for the postseason.

“He’s evolved as a pitcher,” Tracy said of Tolle. “His ability to command the pitches and get them to spots that he wants. The curveball has become more of a factor the last handful of outings, changeup is there. He’s been really good and we’re going to need him to keep doing that down the stretch.”