After losing two out of three games to the Colorado Rockies earlier this week, the Boston Red Sox returned home to host the New York Yankees. Both losses to the Rockies were late in the game. Talk about hitting rock bottom in 2026.
After dealing with some plane issues departing Denver on Wednesday, all the signs were there for a rough weekend shaping up against the American East Division leaders. However, two games into the four-game series, the Red Sox have won the first two behind two strong pitching performances from Connelly Early and Payton Tolle.
Early threw six strong innings, allowing two runs in a 6-3 win on Thursday night. On Friday night, Tolle topped that with an eye-opening performance.
Boston Red Sox Left-Hander Payton Tolle Reveals Illness After Start Against New York Yankees
Through five innings against Yankees, Tolle was perfect. Fifteen up, 15 down. After striking out Anthony Volpe to begin the sixth inning, Spencer Jones looped a single into shallow left field to breakup the perfect game and no-hitter. All gone with one pitch.
Tolle was able to rebound and work seven shutout innings, allowing just the one hit, two walks and striking out seven in a 6-1 Boston victory. After the game, Tolle made a stunning admission, according to Ian Browne of MLB.com.
“This morning, and a little bit yesterday, just had like a body ache, fever, head felt fine, not coughing or anything,” said Tolle. “But I laid in bed for a good, long time this morning, and then got here, got some DayQuil in me, and I think that’s why I hit the wall so hard in the seventh, just not sleeping great, and being a lazy bum in bed all day.”
Michael Jordan had his ‘flu game’ in the NBA Finals and now Tolle had his against the Yankees. He needed 88 pitches to get through seven innings, but he started to get tired late in the game, but was able to gut out the seven innings.
“I was like, I don’t feel great, but I’m going to pitch today, and there were a couple of times where I was like, ‘Do I tell anybody, or should I just push through this?’ But we got some booster stuff, got a bunch of vitamins or something, and that helped out, so it was good. It was a grinder (start),” Tolle said.
Boston Red Sox Look To Clinch Series Against the New York Yankees
It has been a frustrating 2026 season to date for the Red Sox. They are 13.5 games behind the Yankees in the AL East. Boston is tied with the Los Angeles Angels and Kansas City Royals with 34 wins. Those are the fewest in the American League.
However, they can take a small step in turning things around against New York. Winning either Saturday or Sunday will give them a series win over the Yankees. There is still a long way to go in the season. If they can win one more game over the next two days, that’s a small step that didn’t seem possible not too long ago.
Boston will send Jake Bennett and Sonny Gray to the mound to try to win the series over the next two days.
Boston Red Sox Pitcher Makes Surprise Admission After Dominating New York Yankees