Yankees’ bats silenced in loss to Red Sox as Payton Tolle flirts with perfect game

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - JUNE 26: Payton Tolle #70 of the Boston Red Sox reacts after the final out of the the seventh inning of a game against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park on June 26, 2026 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Brian Fluharty/Getty Images) | Getty Images

Payton Tolle last faced the Yankees on April 23rd, when he held them to a run on just three hits in six innings, tallying a career-high 11 strikeouts. It’s hard to think that he could improve on that outing, but he took things to another level tonight, logging one of the most dominating performances by an opposing starter the Yankees have seen in quite some time. He carried a perfect game into the sixth inning before a Spencer Jones single broke up the perfecto and no-hit bids.

By that point, the Red Sox had built a comfortable cushion off Will Warren that the Yankees never really looked like threatening. They may have played a cleaner game in the field than the series opener, but that’s not going to count for much when you manage just three hits on the day. It’s telling that the most exciting moment was a benches-clearing kerfuffle in the fifth as the Yankees sleepwalked to a 6-1 loss.

It wasn’t quite the strikeout display as his first start against the Yankees, but Tolle was nonetheless effective at inducing a whole lot of harmless contact from the Yankees early in counts. He did strike out the side in the second, but mostly it was pop ups and ground balls from the Bombers lineup. Their first baserunner came with one out in the sixth, Spencer Jones flipping a single to the opposite field. They’d muster just two more base runners against Tolle from that point, a pair of two-out walks by Jasson Domínguez and José Caballero in the seventh, only for Jazz Chisholm Jr. to strand them in place with a routine fly out to center.

There is no doubting that this year’s version of Will Warren is much improved from his 2025 rookie campaign, evidence of his development path over the offseason. However, having watched half a season’s worth of starts from him in 2026, I think I’ve identified the three biggest things for him to continue to work on. The first we have discussed multiple times already, the need to maintain composure upon encountering adversity in a start. Warren tends to unravel with runners on, especially if they got there via an error, and I suspect the problem is down to him pitching out of the stretch instead of the windup.

The second area of improvement is to be smarter with his fastball. I feel he is a tad too brazen with his fastball in the zone, stuff-wise it’s just not good enough to beat hitters when it’s not commanded to the edges. Finally, he has seen his strikeout rate drop with each month of the season as he has really struggled to put guys away with two strikes.

Tonight, it was the latter pair of issues that really bit him. In the first, Wilyer Abreu tripled to center with two outs, and after Warren worked Willson Contreras to a 2-2 count, he made a mistake with a sinker that caught way too much of the zone and Contreras drove Abreu home with a single to left-center. Then in the second, Warren loaded the bases with no outs, giving up a bunt single to Caleb Durbin, a line drive single to Anthony Seigler, and walking Connor Wong. He then managed to induce a pair of ground balls, but the infield failed to convert the double play both times, allowing a further pair of runs to score.

The following inning, Warren once again got ahead of Contreras, 1-2, but this time hung a sweeper up and over the plate, and Contreras crushed it over the Monster and onto Lansdowne Street to make it 4-0, Boston. I don’t think for one second that this engendered any feelings of malicious intent in Warren, but Contreras certinly seemed primed for some form of retribution. He got his opportunity to fly off the handle in the fifth. After drawing a walk, Contreras jawed at Warren as he walked to first after two close pitches up and in, Contreras notorious for his hair-trigger temper given the number of times he has gotten plunked in recent years. This caused both benches to clear in a completely unnecessary brouhaha, everyone eventually filing back into the dugouts after Contreras got his moment to puff out his chest.

View Link

Boston tacked on another in the sixth as Caleb Durbin led off with a double, advanced to third on a Seigler grounder, and jogged home on a deep sac fly from Wong. At least the Yankees managed to avoid the shutout, breaking the ice in the eighth against old friend Tommy Kahnle. Anthony Volpe led off with a double, advanced to third on a Jones grounder, and scored on an Austin Wells RBI groundout. However, Boston reestablished their five-run lead in the eighth as Jarren Duran led off with a single, stole second, advanced to third on a Seigler grounder, and touched home on a Wong single. Domínguez collected New York’s third and final hit, an automatic double to right in the ninth with two outs, but Caballero flew out to wrap up a punchless 6-1 loss.

The Yankees still have two games to save face and split this four-game series against the last place Red Sox. That starts tomorrow with Gerrit Cole on the mound against a third straight lefty in Jake Bennett. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 pm ET with the broadcast moving to ABC.

Box Score