What a Difference a Day Makes
Tolle Dominates the Jays, and Durbin Goes Grand as the Sox End Their Five-Game Losing Streak
What a Difference a Day Makes
The Red Sox completed their series with the Blue Jays having lost their second straight series, yet the sun was out, the birds were singing, and being a Red Sox fan didn’t seem nearly as challenging as it had felt just 24 hours earlier.
Some of that newfound perspective had to do with the fact that the Red Sox finally won the series finale, 7-0, snapping their five-game losing streak and restoring a little normalcy to Red Sox Nation. More importantly, though, it was how they won.
Payton Tolle was both economical and brilliant on the mound. The offense was stagnant early but finally delivered timely hits in critical situations after showing no signs of doing so during the previous five games. And the defense was fundamentally sound, complementing the pitching and returning to the “Run Prevention” model Craig Breslow has preached since taking over baseball operations.
Boston jumped out to a quick lead in the first inning when Willson Contreras, who appears to be rounding back into form, doubled home Wilyer Abreu after he had drawn a two-out walk.
From there, the bats seemed to fall back asleep, but perhaps that was simply a residual effect of the spell Payton Tolle had cast over Toronto’s lumber.
After battling his command in the opening inning, the Red Sox left-hander dominated the next seven, never facing no more than three batters in any inning.
In the second, he walked the leadoff hitter but quickly erased him with a double play before retiring the next batter. In the third, Nathan Lukes singled to open the inning, but he would be the final Blue Jay to reach base against Tolle. McAdoo popped up for the first out before Caleb Durbin started a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning.
Through seven innings, it appeared Boston was going to have to cling to that lone first-inning run but then came the eighth inning. And something happened that we may very well look back on in October as one of the defining moments of the season.
After Rafaela and Abreu opened the inning with singles, Contreras came to the plate with two men on and nobody out. The same Willson Contreras who had driven in Boston’s only run of the game. The same Willson Contreras who leads the team in home runs and RBIs.
So what does he do?
He lays down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move both runners into scoring position with fewer than two outs. Toronto intentionally walked Yoshida to load the bases, and Caleb Durbin decided one grand slam in ten days simply wasn’t enough. By the time his drive landed in the demoralized Blue Jays bullpen, a giant sigh of relief could be heard throughout New England.
The Red Sox tacked on a few more runs in the ninth just to stay in shape, and even Greg Weissert finished things off with a scoreless ninth inning.
All was right with the world...at least for a few hours.
The Tolle Booth!
Coming into Thursday afternoon’s start, the Red Sox had won seven of the previous eight games started by Payton Tolle, including his 13-1 demolition of the Athletics the week before, when he threw six innings, allowed just one run, and struck out 14 helpless A’s hitters.
This outing, however, needed to be different. Since the winning streak ended, it had become obvious that Boston’s bullpen was running on fumes after carrying such a heavy workload throughout July and early August. More than anything else, the Red Sox needed length from their starter.
Tolle delivered exactly that. He tossed eight shutout innings, allowing only two hits while throwing just 91 pitches. Had Boston not added a few more insurance runs before the ninth, it wouldn’t have been surprising to see Chad Tracy send him back out to finish what he started.
Thursday’s performance demonstrated that Payton Tolle is much more than the flame-throwing prospect everyone has been talking about. It’s entirely possible the Red Sox have developed a homegrown pitcher whose physical tools and mental makeup draw comparisons to Jon Lester. High praise? Absolutely.
But the poise with which Tolle pitched on Thursday afternoon is something we haven’t seen from a young Red Sox pitching prospect in quite some time. Perhaps there really is hope for Craig Breslow’s ability to identify and develop pitching.
A Sacrifice Worth Making
Willson Contreras’ sacrifice bunt in the eighth inning may have been the most important play of the game. First and foremost, it helped the Red Sox finally win again, which, given the state of the club over the previous five games, was reason enough to celebrate.
But the bunt represented something much bigger. It showed that Willson Contreras is more than the hot-headed, power-hitting loose cannon many people portray him to be.
It demonstrated baseball intelligence, something that, as I’ve documented over the past week, has been in short supply among several players wearing the Block “B.”
More importantly, it showed leadership. Contreras trusted his teammates enough to give up the opportunity for personal statistics in favor of increasing the team’s chances of winning. That’s the kind of baseball winning teams play.
Hopefully, his example rubs off on the rest of the clubhouse because, given the current talent level on this roster, reaching another level in October is going to require every player to embrace that same team-first mentality.
Time to Go Pirate Hunting
Hopefully, with the losing streak now behind them and a little confidence restored, the Red Sox can head to the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers and return to the form that carried them into the second Wild Card position.
There is still plenty of work to do.
But if they continue pulling in the same direction and trusting the process, perhaps this ream can give us more than just a summer of meaningful baseball. Maybe, we’ll get a little meaningful October baseball as well.
Image courtesy of yardbarker.com