Boston Red Sox

Tolle said postgame he was battling an illness prior to his outstanding start Friday.

For all the faults of the 2026 Red Sox, Payton Tolle is absolutely not one of them.

The young starter tossed seven scoreless innings against the Yankees on Friday, striking out seven batters and allowing just one hit. He walked off the mound to a standing ovation from the Fenway Park crowd for the dominant outing.

He carried his no-hit and perfect game bid into the sixth inning before giving up that first and only hit.

“I was definitely thinking about it in that fifth,” Tolle said postgame. “Whoever says whenever they throw a no-hitter or perfect game and they’re like ‘I didn’t think about it until the ninth’, that’s a load of bull crap. They’re absolutely thinking about it.”

After the game, Tolle admitted he was fighting a bit of an illness, but he started anyway, and dominated every inning.

“Just got, this morning and a little bit yesterday, just got a body ache, fever, head felt fine … but I laid in bed for a long time this morning,” Tolle told reporters. “Got here, got some DayQuil in me, [but] I think that’s why I hit a wall so hard in the seventh. Just not sleeping great.”

Tolle got his feet wet as a starter late last season with varying levels of success, but he’s elevated his game this year and proven he can own a permanent spot in Boston’s starting rotation for years to come. His pitching arsenal isn’t vast yet, but the pitches he does go to are highly effective.

Tolle has a 2.78 ERA across 12 starts this season, including Friday’s win. He’s becoming quite the Yankee killer, throwing 18 strikeouts and only allowing one run and four hits across his pair of starts against New York this year.

“It’s one of the best rivalries in sports. No matter what’s going on with the season this is still a great series,” Tolle said of these Yankees series. “Was able to go out there and have a lot of fun with it.”

Thanks to Tolle’s sickly efforts, Boston finds itself up 2-0 in its four-game series against the Yankees at Fenway Park. Jake Bennett gets the bump on Saturday afternoon, and Sonny Gray will get the nod for Sunday Night Baseball on NBC.