Payton Tolle started strong for Boston and finished with nine strikeouts, but Justin Slaten’s short seventh inning unraveled the lead as the Twins beat the Red Sox 8-6 at Fenway Park.
Fenway Park had one kind of night early, and a completely different one by the time Boston saw the seventh inning.
Payton Tolle set the tone for the Red Sox on Friday night, finishing with nine strikeouts. Then the second inning turned messy. Even though Tolle battled afterward, Chad Tracy had seen enough by the time Boston got to the sixth, making a bullpen move after the sixth inning.
Justin Slaten was the next arm in. sent out for the seventh inning—and he couldn’t get it to stick. Slaten only retired two batters before Tracy pulled him. In not even a full inning of work, Slaten surrendered four hits and four runs, including two home runs. Aroldis Chapman, Garrett Whitlock, and the rest of the plan were suddenly irrelevant; the inning was already slipping away.
Greg Weissert came out to clean things up and get out of the inning, but the damage was done. Boston still had fight left in the bottom of the eighth, yet it stranded two runners on base and failed to tie. Minnesota added an insurance run in the ninth, and that was it—an 8-6 final.
After the loss, Tracy explained why he pulled Tolle after 85 pitches. “For me. not much [of a decision]. just because at the time it was. ‘let’s just hope he gets through five’. ” Tracy said. “Once he got through six and you got [Slaten]. Whit. and Chapman lined up and you’re about to go through the order a fourth time.”.
Tracy acknowledged the move didn’t work out. “Obviously it didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but it was pretty clear-cut we were going to go there.”
He also defended Tolle’s overall performance. “He was good. … Obviously the second inning was long, they batted through the order,” Tracy explained. “I thought there were some times when he was missing bigger than he usually does. but I give him a lot of credit … he did a nice job to settle in and keep the lead for us.”.
The night felt especially wasted for Boston’s offense. The Red Sox have only posted six or more runs in roughly 20 percent of games this season, and Friday’s outburst was overshadowed by an even larger inning from the Twins.
Slaten, for his part, said the loss simply didn’t match his recent form. “Just one of those nights. I’ve been feeling really good, tonight just didn’t have my stuff,” Slaten told reporters postgame. “It’s the game we play. sometimes you just got to go out there and battle with what you got. and it just didn’t go my way tonight.”.
That recent form matters, because Slaten came into Friday’s contest with zero earned runs allowed on the season, and the trio of Slaten with Aroldis Chapman and Garrett Whitlock has been stellar for the Red Sox. But Friday night wasn’t about what had worked.
It was about what happened in one stretch—two batters retired, then four runs surrendered—and how quickly a plan can collapse at Fenway. Boston heads into Saturday down on the series against the Twins.
Boston Red Sox Minnesota Twins Payton Tolle Justin Slaten Fenway Park Aroldis Chapman Garrett Whitlock Greg Weissert Chad Tracy MLB