Boston Is 13-1 Hot and Payton Tolle Struck Out 14

Fourteen strikeouts in six innings is a starting line that ends the conversation about the rest of the game.

Tolle was the game

Payton Tolle struck out 14 over six innings against Oakland. In a 13-1 result the pitching line is easy to skip past, which is exactly backwards. The offense produced multiple multi-hit games and the bullpen closed it out, but the shape of the win was set by a starter who did not allow the game to become one.

Five games back, and hot

Boston remains one of the hottest teams in the American League and sits within five games of the AL East lead. That is a real position with seven weeks to play, and it is also the least forgiving spot in the standings: third in a division where the top two are both playing well, which means the Red Sox need their own run and someone else's slump at the same time.

Blowouts are the cheapest wins available. Stacking them is how a five-game gap becomes a two-game gap without anything dramatic happening.