Red Sox ride five-run fifth, Payton Tolle's arm to 8-1 victory vs. Orioles

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Jun 3, 2026

Published in Baseball

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BOSTON — Home hasn’t been a happy place for the Red Sox, who came into Wednesday night’s game against the Baltimore Orioles with both the worst home record in MLB and their worst home record up to this point in nearly 100 years.

But Wednesday, Fenway Park felt the friendliest it’s been in ages.

Boston enjoyed one of its best home wins of the season, clobbering the Orioles 8-1 thanks in large part to a five-run eruption in the bottom of the fifth and a brilliant outing by rookie left-hander Payton Tolle. The Red Sox’s eight runs and 15 hits both tied season highs at home, and Wilyer Abreu led the way at the plate by going 2 for 5 with a home run and three RBIs.

The Red Sox came strong out of the gate, taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning after Jarren Duran hit a leadoff single, advanced on a groundout and scored on an RBI single by Abreu. Willson Contreras followed that with a double down the left-field line, but the Red Sox rally was abruptly halted when Abreu was thrown out on a close play at home plate.

It was the latest in a concerning trend for the Red Sox and new third base coach Chad Epperson, who assumed the role following the club’s coaching staff purge in late April. Since taking over, Epperson has had six runners thrown out at the plate on hits or errors, all over the last 13 games since May 19.

The play stopped the club’s momentum for a bit, but Abreu made sure to retake the initiative when he hit a two-run home run with two outs in the third. It was the right fielder’s seventh home run of the season to make it 3-0, and the Red Sox kept pushing with a walk, a single and another walk to load the bases, though the club couldn’t convert to extend the lead further.

Meanwhile, Tolle shook off his short last outing and did his part to keep the Orioles off the board.

While the rookie left-hander’s velocity was slightly down and he labored through a 25-pitch first inning, Tolle kept battling. He stranded a man at third in the top of the first, left two men on in the third and battled back after Marcelo Mayer lost what would have been an inning-ending pop-out in the twilight sky. That led to a second-and-third jam, but Tolle drew a flyout to right to escape unscathed.

The twilight wound up benefitting the Red Sox in a big way a few minutes later.

After starting the fifth with a Contreras double and a Masataka Yoshida walk, Mickey Gasper hit a fly ball to deep center field that looked fairly playable off the bat. But Orioles center fielder Blaze Alexander badly misread the ball, which wound up landing at least 60 feet behind him and allowed both runners to score.

The Red Sox put the hurt on Orioles righty Albert Suarez from there, batting around and ultimately scoring five runs in the fifth inning. Isiah Kiner-Falefa drove in Gasper with an RBI double, Caleb Durbin had an RBI double for his sixth extra-base hit in his last six games, and Ceddanne Rafaela beat out a close play at first for an RBI infield single to cap off the rally and make it 8-0 Red Sox.

Tolle came back out in the sixth and finished his outing strong, working around a single and a walk to wrap up his fifth quality start of the season. Tolle finished with six scoreless innings, allowing seven hits and two walks with five strikeouts on a career-high 99 pitches.

His ERA for the season now stands at 2.28.

Once Tolle was done the Red Sox were in cruise control, though the club endured one scary moment in the seventh when Rafaela crashed into the center-field wall at full speed trying to make a catch on what wound up being an RBI triple by Adley Rutschman. Rafaela was down on the warning track for several seconds and was checked by the trainer, but he remained in the game.

In addition to Abreu, several other Red Sox players enjoyed standout nights at the plate. Contreras reached base safely four times and finished 3 for 4 with two doubles and Rafaela went 3 for 5 with a double and an RBI.

The Red Sox (26-34) now have a chance to win their second consecutive series, and just their second at home all season. First pitch for Thursday’s finale will be at 1:35 p.m.