Red Sox reactions: Payton Tolle outdueled by Mariners righty as Boston can’t finish sweep

Instant reactions from the Red Sox (31-44) losing 3-1 to the Mariners at T-Mobile Park on Sunday afternoon:

1) Payton Tolle and Logan Gilbert are both exciting, tall pitchers with big stuff — and their pitching matchup lived up to the billing Sunday. Tolle limited the damage in six strong innings but Gilbert pitched better, holding the Red Sox to one run on three hits in 6 ⅓ innings. He struck out eight.

The difference in the game came in middle innings when Tolle allowed runs to score on an RBI single by Cole Young in the fifth inning and a Dominic Canzone fielder’s choice an inning later.

2) Tolle avoided major damage but battled traffic throughout his start. In total, he allowed six hits (two more than the Mariners had in the first two games of the series) and three runs while posting the same number of strikeouts as walks (two).

In the second, Dominic Canzone opened the scoring by taking Tolle deep on a fastball in the zone. Tolle then allowed runs in the fifth and sixth as Seattle broke a tie and went ahead for good.

3) The only damage against Gilbert came from an unlikely source at the bottom of Boston’s lineup. Gilbert had retired seven of the first eight Red Sox he had faced when Nate Eaton stepped to the plate in the second and demolished a fastball into the left-field seats to tie the game, 1-1.

Eaton, who has only appeared in five major league games this year, hit his blast 409 feet with an exit velocity of 103.2 mph. He now has three big league homers in 118 MLB games. Eaton was in the lineup (as the right fielder) because interim manager Chad Tracy wanted to get Wilyer Abreu off his feet after starting 73 of the first 74 games of the year.

4) Boston had just five hits in total — and struck out 13 times. After back-to-back encouraging offensive showings in the first two games of the series, the bats went quiet on Father’s Day.

Boston is .500 on the road at 19-19 and 6-11 in June. Their series win in Seattle was their first on the road since the end of May in Cleveland.

5) Some poor play haunted the Red Sox in the sixth, both on the basepaths and in the field.

First, bad baserunning by Eaton cost Boston a chance at a run. He had just advanced to second base (with one out) on a wild pitch when Ceddanne Rafaela laced a low liner into right. Eaton appeared to be off on contact for some reason and the right fielder, Canzone, came in on the ball to make a diving catch. Canzone made an easy throw to second to double off Eaton, who was standing on third.

A few minutes later, Seattle had a man on first and one out when Refsnyder laced a hard-hit grounder toward Marcelo Mayer at shortstop. What could have been an inning-ending double play ball glanced off Mayer’s glove, allowing Julio Rodríguez to take third. That came back to bite Boston when Canzone put the ball in play and Rodríguez scored an insurance run on another grounder toward Mayer.

6)Some fancy footwork by third baseman Caleb Durbin helped Tolle escape damage in the fourth. With one out, Tolle had issued back-to-back walks when Rob Refsnyder hit a slow roller down the third base line. Durbin fielded it while keeping his foot on the base for the first out, then fired to second for the inning-ending double play.

Refsnyder, who has had a very difficult offensive season (especially at home) was 1-for-10 in the three games against his former team.

7) Boston’s best chance to tie the game came with two outs in the seventh. With Mickey Gasper on first after reaching on an error, Durbin laced a double to the base of the left-field wall off lefty Gabe Speier. To get the platoon edge, Tracy used Andruw Monasterio as a pinch-hitter for Marcelo Mayer. But Speier struck out Monasterio on three pitches to keep the score at 3-1.

8) Durbin had another strong offensive game, leading off the fourth with a single before lacing the double in the seventh. He left Seattle with seven hits in three games and is now hitting .309 with a .928 OPS in 16 June games.

9) The Red Sox will head to Denver late Sunday and open an interleague series against the Rockies at Coors Field on Monday night. Here’s the schedule (with pitching probables):

Monday, 8:40 p.m. ET — LHP Jake Bennett (1-3, 4.79 ERA) vs. RHP Ryan Feltner (2-2, 5.05 ERA)

Tuesday, 8:40 p.m. ET — RHP Sonny Gray (8-1, 3.12 ERA) vs. LHP Sean Sullivan (0-1, 10.29 ERA)

Wednesday, 3:10 p.m. ET — LHP Ranger Suarez (3-3, 2.93 ERA) vs. LHP Kyle Freeland (1-7, 7.36 ERA)

• BETTING: For Monday’s interleague clash between the Red Sox and the Rockies, the over/under is listed at 11.5 total runs on DraftKings. Our complete DraftKings Sportsbook review provides a guide on how to use their platform.

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