The Red Sox enjoyed two shutout victories in their previous three games, but the shoe was on the other foot until deep into Sunday’s 4-1 finale loss to the visiting Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park.

Rookie left-hander Payton Tolle struggled early in his five-inning, 81-pitch start, but finished strong. He yielded three earned runs on seven hits, struck out four and didn’t issue a walk.

“I thought he pitched well,” interim manager Chad Tracy said of his starter. “I mean, the strike percentage was outstanding. … Any time you got a guy with that kind of stuff and you see that kind of strike percentage, you’re gonna like it. I think more often than not, we’re going to be in good shape. When you’re dealing with the Rays, they grind at-bats, they don’t strike out much.”

Rays batters swung at 51 of Tolle’s 81 pitches, including 12 whiffs. Their 16 batted-ball events against him had an average exit velocity of 81.3 mph, and only five qualified as hard-hit (at least 95 mph). He threw 74% of his pitches for strikes.

The Rays took an immediate lead in the top of the first on Junior Caminero’s 11th home run of the season, a one-out blast to the back of the Green Monster seats. Tolle recovered and retired the next two hitters, and a relay from right-fielder Wilyer Abreu to substitute first baseman Andruw Monasterio, who replaced an injured Willson Contreras, to shortstop Trevor Story and back to Monasterio helped erase Ryan Vilade’s leadoff single in a 1-2-3 second inning.

Tampa tacked on a pair in the top of the third, helped by a costly error by Story, which allowed catcher Nick Fortes to score on left-fielder Chandler Simpson’s one-out single. Second baseman Ben Williamson’s two-out RBI single made it 3-0 before Tolle struck out Vilade to end the inning.

Tolle faced the minimum in his last two innings. Cedric Mullins led off the fourth with a single, but was picked off and caught stealing second in a 1-3-4-1-6 rundown by Tolle, Monasterio, Marcelo Mayer, and Story.

“Outside of that (third) inning, it was a pretty good effort,” said Tracy.

It was an emotional weekend for Tolle. Scheduled to start on Saturday, the two-year anniversary of his mother Jina’s passing from colon cancer, he instead was on the mound for Mother’s Day.

Rays starter Nick Martinez shut out the Red Sox for 5 1/3 of his 5 2/3 innings (80 pitches, 55 for strikes). Boston scattered seven hits, drew no walks, struck out three times and plated just one run against him.

Martinez racked up 10 swing-and-misses and like Tolle, induced a consistent stream of weak contact for outs. Boston’s 20 batted-ball events against him averaged 84.9 mph off the bat, with seven hard-hit.

Story’s second strikeout in as many at-bats, and after his second-inning error, elicited boos from the lively, but far from sold-out crowd of 33,489. The veteran shortstop was booed again when he struck out looking to end the eighth. Story is hitting .200 with a .520 OPS through 38 games this season.

The Red Sox left at least one man on base in each of the first six innings. They couldn’t even advance a runner as far as third base until Jarren Duran singled with two outs in the fifth, and moved to the hot corner on Monasterio’s second hit of the day, a single. Both men were then stranded.

Sunday’s lineup standout was Mickey Gasper, who had gone 0 for 18 in his 2024 debut with the Red Sox. Back in the organization after a 2025 season in the Minnesota Twins organization, Gasper not only notched his first Red Sox hit, but finished 3 for 4 with two doubles and drove in the team’s only run.

Boston got on the board and knocked Martinez out of the game in the bottom of the sixth. Story lined a one-out double low off the Monster for his first extra-base hit since April 29. Gasper followed with a single, which drove in his first-ever Red Sox RBI.

Martinez retired Mayer, and left the rest up to the Rays bullpen. Right-hander Kevin Kelly pitched his team’s first clean inning in the bottom of the seventh. Left-hander Garrett Cleavinger struck out the side in the eighth, but the Red Sox made him work for it. Pinch-hitting for Masataka Yoshida, catcher Carlos Narváez didn’t go down swinging until Cleavinger’s 11th pitch, an 86.5 mph slider, and Story’s third strikeout of the day came on the eighth pitch.

Gasper led off the bottom of the ninth with his second double, and Mayer followed with a walk. Each of the next three at-bats teased, but didn’t achieve. Ceddanne Rafaela lined a ball foul down the left-field line that went foul, then struck out swinging. Replay review showed Caleb Durbin was a split second away from beating the throw to first base, which would’ve loaded the diamond. And Duran’s fly ball soared high, but only 289 feet before it landed safely in Simpson’s glove.

The Red Sox tallied eight hits, eight strikeouts and one walk in the contest. They were 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base.

Challenging day

Both teams had mixed results with the ABS challenge system. In the bottom of the first, Contreras successfully challenged Martinez’s second pitch, then was plunked for the AL-leading eighth time on the very next pitch, and was replaced by Monasterio in the top of the second. (Postgame, Tracy said Contreras was sore, but the initial scans the Red Sox performed came back negative.)

Behind the dish, Gasper successfully overturned a 2-1 ball during Williamson’s at-bat against Kelly in the top of the sixth.

Rafaela now owns a 2 for 7 ABS record this season. His challenge in the bottom of the sixth came on a pitch with an edge distance over three inches inside the zone.