Nationals get to Payton Tolle for six runs in three-plus innings, rout Red Sox in finale to take series
The Red Sox’ best homestand of the season came to a fizzling Fenway finish Wednesday, with the team enduring a 10-2 shellacking by the Nationals. The loss was the second straight against Washington, with the defeats coming by a combined score of 18-3, an anticlimactic conclusion to a Fenway Park stretch that had commenced with five straight victories.
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The Nationals wasted no time in jumping on Sox starter Payton Tolle. With one out in the first inning, Curtis Mead drilled a 95-mile-per-hour sinker for a Triangle triple, and Andrés Chaparro followed by belting a four-seamer at the same speed for a two-run homer to left.
While Tolle recovered to put up zeroes in the next two innings, he ran out of steam by the fourth inning of a sweltering afternoon (game-time temperature of 95 degrees, the hottest at Fenway since 2022).
After he’d averaged 96 m.p.h. on his four-seamer through three innings, Tolle’s velocity dropped to 94 in the fourth, and he lost command of the zone. He gave up a homer to Nasim Nuñez on a lifeless 92-m.p.h. fastball to start the inning, then gave up a single and two straight walks to end his day. All three runners eventually scored.
Tolle’s final line was the worst of his brief time in the majors — in three-plus innings (his shortest start this season), he allowed a career-high six runs on seven hits and three walks while striking out five. The Nationals continued to circle the bases against the Sox bullpen, most notably on a three-run homer by slugger James Wood in the seventh inning.
While the Nationals teed off, the Sox lineup sputtered against a Nationals staff throwing a modified bullpen game. Righthander Brad Lord, typically a long reliever, delivered 2⅓ shutout innings as an opener, and lefthander Andrew Alvarez followed with 4⅔ scoreless frames. The Sox finally broke through for a pair of runs in the eighth to avoid the shutout.
The Red Sox will now head to Anaheim, Calif., to face the Angels in the start of a nine-game road trip that leads into the All-Star break. Their 37-48 record is their worst through 85 games since 1996.
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