Top Red Sox pitching prospect Payton Tolle was dominant in his Double-A debut Saturday.
The 22-year-old left-hander pitched 5 innings and allowed one run, one hit and two walks while striking out nine in Portland’s 3-2 loss to Binghamton in 11 innings.
Tolle — a 6-foot-6, 270-pounder — recorded 19 swings and misses, tied for the most among Double A pitchers yesterday.
SoxProspects.com’s Ian Cundall noted that Tolle reached 98 mph while striking out the side swinging in the fifth inning.
Baseball America ranks Tolle No. 84 on its Top 100 prospect list. Boston drafted him in the second round (50th overall) out of TCU last July.
He has increased velocity in the Red Sox organization after throwing mostly in the low-90s at TCU. His pitch mix also includes a sweeper, changeup, curveball and slider.
“Credit to him for all the work because he’s been up to 98 and we see that he’s a guy who could survive on probably 75% fastballs,” chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said recently.
He has struck out 88 of the 224 batters (39.3%) he has faced this season between High-A Greenville and Portland.
He has 74 swings and misses combined in his past four starts. He has allowed one or zero runs in nine of his 12 professional outings.
Other Red Sox minor league notes from Saturday:
~ David Sandlin, another top pitching prospect in the organization, followed Tolle. He pitched 4 scoreless innings and allowed just one hit and two walks while striking out seven.
Sandlin has a 2.18 ERA (33 innings, eight runs) over his past six outings (five starts) with four scoreless outings mixed in. He has allowed just 22 hits during that stretch.
Baseball America ranks Sandlin Boston’s No. 11 prospect. MLB Pipeline ranks him the Red Sox’ No. 9 prospect. The 24-year-old’s fastball has reached the triple-digits.
~ Blaze Jordan belted a 388-foot home run to right-center field that left his bat at 109.5 mph in Triple-A Worcester’s 5-3 win over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 10 innings.
The 22-year-old right-handed hitter is batting .303 with a .347 on-base percentage, .517 slugging percentage, .864 OPS, three homers, eight doubles and one triple in 22 games since his promotion to Worcester.
~ Kristian Campbell had a go-ahead two-run single in the 10th for Worcester. He went 1-for-3 with two walks and a strikeout.
~ Michael Sansone, a 25-year-old lefty, allowed just one hit and no walks while striking out three in 5 scoreless innings in High-A Greenville’s 1-0 win over Rome. He has a 2.44 ERA (44 ⅓ innings, 12 earned runs), 0.91 WHIP and .221 batting average against in 17 outings (two starts) between Low-A Salem and Greenville.
~ Noah Dean, a 24-year-old lefty, allowed just one run, three hits and one walk while striking out seven over 5 innings in a 2-0 loss in Game 1 of Greenville’s doubleheader with Rome.
