BOSTON — Only two pitchers in Red Sox history have opened a game with an immaculate inning — three batters, nine pitches, three strikeouts.

One is Pedro Martinez. The other, as of Sunday, is Payton Tolle.

Boston’s rookie standout buzzed through the first inning of his team’s rain-delayed matchup against the Royals at Fenway Park, striking out Kansas City’s first three hitters on the minimum number of pitches.

It was just the sixth immaculate first inning in major league history, according to Baseball Almanac, and the first since 2008, when Rich Harden tossed one for Oakland against the Angels.

That superb start set the tone for another strong outing from Tolle, who tossed six scoreless innings in a 4-1 Boston win.

“He was fantastic,” Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said. “He really was. … Just a really, really good effort on his part.”

The Red Sox proactively pushed back Sunday’s start time from 1:35 p.m. to 3:05 p.m. ET to try to avoid inclement weather in the area, then were forced to delay it again as heavy rains continued to pound the covered Fenway playing surface.

It took another hour for the downpour to relent. Tolle’s first pitch finally came at 4:55 p.m.

Many pitchers are creatures of habit, devotees of routine. Tracy said pregame that he had no concern about Tolle being thrown off by the prolonged wait.

“He came in, gave me my salute this morning and said, ‘3:05?’ I was like, ‘Plan on it,'” Tracy said. “He’s like, ‘But be ready to pivot.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, be ready to pivot.’”

Pivot, he did. Tolle fired his first offering past leadoff hitter Nick Loftin — then the next one, then the next. The mustachioed left-hander opened the game with back-to-back-to-back three-pitch strikeouts, putting down Loftin, Bobby Witt Jr. and Jac Caglianone.

The three Kansas City batters made contact just once, with Caglianone fouling off an 0-0 sinker. Tolle, sensing history as the Fenway fans rose to their feet, smiled before his third pitch to Caglianone, then roared after the Royals designated hitter swung through a 98-mph four-seam fastball to end the frame.

Eight of Tolle’s nine pitches in the flawless inning were four-seamers.

“It’s an electric fastball,” Roman Anthony said. “He’s an electric pitcher. He’s an electric human being. It’s really fun to watch.”

No Red Sox pitcher had thrown a nine-pitch, three-strikeout inning since Aug. 26, 2021, when Chris Sale accomplished that feat for a third time. Just six pitchers in club history have done so: Martinez, Clay Buchholz, Craig Kimbrel, Rick Porcello, Sale and now Tolle.

Only Martinez and Tolle have completed an immaculate first inning. The former K’d Ichiro Suzuki, Mark McLemore and Ruben Sierra to lead off a home win over Seattle on May 18, 2002.

“That was pretty cool. That was a pretty cool feeling,” Tolle said, adding that he “for sure” had to calm his own emotions before he returned to the mound.

Tolle began the second inning by striking out Salvador Perez — this time on five pitches — before allowing Michael Massey to reach on an infield single. Massey beat Tolle to the bag after grounding to newly activated first baseman Willson Contreras, but he was stranded there after Tolle retired Matthew Lugo on a flyout to left and Isaac Collins on a popout to first.

Caleb Durbin opened the scoring for Boston with a one-out, first-pitch home run in the bottom of the second off Royals starter Noah Cameron. Nick Sogard nearly followed suit two batters later, but his Monster shot sailed just to the left of the foul pole, and he proceeded to strike out to end the inning.

Strong defensive plays by Durbin at third base and Sogard at second helped Tolle put the Royals down in order in the third. He got through the first three innings in 35 pitches, 27 of them strikes, then worked around a leadoff walk to Witt in an otherwise uneventful fourth.

Royals miscues — a throwing error on a Contreras grounder and a Durbin hit-by-pitch, sandwiched around a Trevor Story single — helped the Red Sox load the bases in the home half of the fourth. They couldn’t capitalize, however, as Sogard grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Kansas City threatened for the first time in the fifth, putting runners on the corners with consecutive singles by Luke Maile and Tyler Tolbert. Tolle escaped that by inducing a Loftin groundout, then wriggled out of a two-on, no-out jam in the sixth.

With Witt on second and Caglianone on first after a leadoff single and a hit-by-pitch, Tolle got Perez to fly out to right before closing his outing with consecutive strikeouts. Massey tipped an 88-mph cutter into catcher Adley Rutschman’s mitt, and Tolle fooled Lugo, who’d fouled off three straight pitches, with a curveball in the dirt to strand the runners and maintain Boston’s slim 1-0 lead.

The scoreless outing was Tolle’s fifth of the season. Over his last two starts, the 23-year-old has surrendered one run, walked one and struck out 19. All four hits he allowed Sunday were singles.

But the Red Sox’s bullpen faltered. Erik Miller walked the first two batters of the seventh inning, and though center fielder Nate Eaton gunned down Collins at third on a shallow fly ball, pinch hitter Carter Jensen tied the game with an RBI single off Boston’s second reliever, Garrett Whitlock.

Whitlock retired the next two batters to limit the damage, and Boston’s offense quickly responded.

Durbin and Sogard both drew walks against Kimbrel, the former Red Sox closer, and Anthony smacked a go-ahead base hit into left-center field, scoring Durbin from second.

The Red Sox added two insurance runs in the eighth inning, with Contreras, Rutschman and Story going single, double, two-run single in successive at-bats.

Contreras, who was limited by a hamstring injury for much of August, went 2-for-3 with a walk in his first game back from the 10-day injured list. He and Durbin both reached base in all four of their plate appearances.

Aroldis Chapman buckled down after back-to-back ninth-inning walks to close things out for Boston. The Red Sox will begin a three-game series in Texas on Tuesday.

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