A late surge, a first homer, and small signs of progress across the roster.
Spring training box scores don’t usually tell you much.
The rhythms are different, the lineups are fluid, and the outcomes rarely stick in your memory for more than a day or two.
But the first one always feels a little different.
That was certainly the case Saturday afternoon, when the Red Sox opened their 2026 Grapefruit League slate with a 7-2 win over the Minnesota Twins at Lee Health Sports Complex.
The result itself isn’t the story - it almost never is this time of year - but the way it unfolded offered a handful of early threads worth tugging on as camp begins to take shape.
For starters, there was Payton Tolle, who continues to live a pretty unique baseball timeline. It’s not often you see someone make a spring training debut after already checking the big-league and postseason boxes, but that’s exactly where he finds himself. His outing lasted two innings, and aside from a solo shot from Royce Lewis, it was largely what the Red Sox were hoping to see in a first turn.
“He did good,” Alex Cora told the media postgame. “He made some pitches, velo was OK, threw strikes. That’s what we wanted to see today.”
Tolle, as you’d expect from a pitcher this early in the ramp-up period, was a bit more self-critical.
Sep 5, 2025; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Boston Red Sox pitcher Payton Tolle (70) throws against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first inning at Chase Field. (Rick Scuteri/Imagn Images)“I was kind of like, I mean, obviously unhappy,” Tolle told the media postgame. “Didn’t feel I had the ‘2K-kill’ that I wanted to. Especially with Lewis. Trying to get a ball up there, up and in, it just was in, in the honey-hole. Obviously, that ball was hit very hard, and the bat kept ringing a little bit in my head, but it happens. Thought I responded well. I was able to come back, get three outs.”
That ability to respond is really the whole point of these outings, and it set the tone for a day that gradually tilted Boston’s way.
Offensively, the Sox didn’t do much early, falling behind before finally breaking through late as the Twins’ defense started to unravel. Once the door cracked open, Boston took advantage.
Andruw Monasterio - one of the more under-the-radar additions of the winter - provided the first Grapefruit League homer, a moment that feels small now but is exactly the kind of thing that can quietly help a roster case over the next few weeks.
Kristian Campbell kept his strong early impression going with a double, and Mikey Romero delivered the swing of the day with a two-run single clocked at 108 mph that pushed Boston firmly in front.
There were other small developments sprinkled throughout, too.
Rule 5 pick Ryan Watson turning in a clean inning against big-league hitters. The usual early-camp lineup churn. A couple of late scratches on both sides - including one that could have an impact on the World Baseball Classic.
None of it will define the spring on its own.
But taken together, it’s the familiar reminder of what this time of year is really about - stacking small wins, building rhythm, and slowly letting the story of a new season start to reveal itself.
Kristian Campbell comes off the field during a Red Sox Spring Training game on March 11, 2025, at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers, Florida. (WooSox Photo/Ashley Green/USA TODAY NETWORK/Imagn Images)JOIN THE CONVERSATION:
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Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.