Payton Tolle stared into the bright TV lights and assembled news media and provided a welcome-to-the-playoffs moment before anyone could ask him about it.
"This is so official," he chuckled, one day before he will climb the Yankee Stadium mound in Game 1 of the American League wild-card series Tuesday, Sept. 29 .
Yeah, Tolle is accustomed to and seems quite comfortable in less formal gatherings, perhaps at his locker in the Boston Red Sox clubhouse and certainly on his journey from Oklahoma to Wichita State to TCU and up the ladder in Boston’s organization until seizing a role as their ace of the future and, increasingly, the present.
His Game 1 assignment is a nod to a fantastic season during which he struck out 171 batters in 148 ⅔ innings as Boston
won 15 of his 26 starts since he was summoned from Class AAA for good April 23.
Now, Yankees-Red Sox in the playoffs.
It’s a stage that offers the chance for kingmaking, as the Yankees' Cam Schlittler found out a year ago. His Game 3 dominance of the Red Sox – 12 strikeouts in eight shutout innings – in that winner-take-all game was a springboard to a presumed 2026 AL Cy Young Award and a status as Public Enemy No. 1 in Boston.
Schlitter has earned a promotion – as the club’s ace, he’s starting Game 1. And now it could be Tolle’s turn to join him in postseason lore.
Yet Tolle’s jovial exterior runs in stark contrast to Schlittler’s trash-talking, grievance-seeking sensibilities. Oh, Tolle’s a fierce competitor, but he’s better known for his audible grunts, his Ron Swanson-esque mustache and his quick-to-smile public persona that might see him do a push-up near the mound or laugh with teammates.
He’s just gotta be him.
"I’ve tried trying to be super locked in. It doesn’t work for me," says Tolle. "I end up putting too much pressure on myself. I’ve just found the way I work the best is trying to be comfortable and smiling as much as I can out there."
Staying grounded, in a sense, is how he stays locked in.
'You’re so pretty'
That’s one reason why the 6-6, 250-pound 23-year-old keeps a tribute to his late mother on his glove. He’s stitched "You’re So Pretty" on the leather as a reminder of his mother, Jina, who passed away in 2024 after battling colon cancer.
She’d shout that phrase at her son during his high school games, which he thought was intended to embarrass him, he told MLB.com. Instead, he realized it was a gesture of love. She passed away shortly before the Red Sox drafted Tolle 50th overall in the 2024 MLB Draft.
He will still be surrounded by family in the biggest start of his life: Father Chad will be on hand along with his wife Devin and her family and "some good family friends."
"A good amount," he said Monday. "You’re thankful for the moment. And I’m really happy they’re going to be able to experience it."
White noise and embracing joy
It won’t be a simple cameo. Tolle was called upon for one out in last year’s wild-card series, with fellow rookie lefty Connelly Early starting Game 3. Now he’s tasked with battling a Yankees lineup that remains potent if not as dynamic minus reigning MVP Aaron Judge, who has been out with a calf injury.
It will be a fascinating matchup of Yankee discipline vs. Tolle’s elite 36.4% chase rate. He can also attack: Tolle gets swings and misses on 30.5% of his 96 mph fastballs, which he throws nearly half the time.
That’s only part of the reason manager Chad Tracy – who was elevated from Class AAA to big-league manager three days after Tolle was summoned from Worcester – opted for the affable lefty over veterans Sonny Gray and Ranger Suarez in Game 1.
"I know he's a rookie, but as far as the way he approaches baseball and big moments, that part won't bother him," says Tracy. "He’s just a pretty special personality that's been through a lot and doesn't take things too seriously that don't need to be taken that seriously.
"Just going to go out there and pitch his game regardless of what it is."
This time, it is a prime-time appointment wedged among the four wild-card games, authoring the next chapter in this storied rivalry.
Predictably, Tolle aims to reduce all that. He faced Paul Skenes in his big-league debut and realized it was the Pittsburgh batters, not eventual NL Cy Young Award winner, he was actually facing.
And when he walked out to the bullpen in last year’s wild-card series, he heard the prattle from the stands – the trash-talking, the extra energy you don’t see in April but that you can only, as he puts it, "turn into white noise."
Not that Tolle won’t steer into some of it. He knows what he’s getting into and like most everything else, he’s greeting it with an impish grin and a gleam in his eye.
"A real slobberknocker,” he says. “It’s gonna be a good night."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Payton Tolle embraces 'real slobberknocker' playoff battle against Yankees
