Payton Tolle’s Major League debut was one to remember.
The hard-throwing left-hander fanned eight over 5 1/3 sharp innings Friday night, electrifying the Fenway faithful and offering fans a glimpse into the future.
Greg Weissert allowed back-to-back doubles, and both runs were charged to Tolle in an eventual 4-2 loss to the Pirates, yet it was still a largely promising opening act for the highly regarded rookie.
Here are five stats to contextualize Tolle’s outing:
Strikeout king
Tolle became the first Red Sox pitcher to record eight-plus strikeouts in his MLB debut since Daisuke Matsuzaka punched out 10 in April 2007.