Payton Tolle News: Candidate for call-up Friday

The Red Sox could promote Tolle from Triple-A Worcester to start or make a bulk-relief appearance in Friday's game against the Pirates, Christopher Smith of MassLive.com reports.

Boston has confirmed that Dustin May will start the second game of the series Saturday, and Lucas Giolito appears on track to start Sunday's series finale, but the club still has an opening in its rotation for Friday after Richard Fitts (arm) was removed from his bulk-relief appearance in Monday's game against the Orioles before landing on the injured list. Kyle Harrison -- who is already on the Red Sox's 40-man roster -- made an abbreviated three-inning start for Worcester on Tuesday to keep him in play for a promotion to the big leagues Friday, but Tolle has established himself as the organization's top pitching prospect this season and may have done enough to make a case for his first MLB call-up. After accruing a 2.93 ERA and racking up 116 punchouts across 76.2 innings through his first 17 outings of the season between High-A Greenville and Double-A Portland, the 22-year-old lefty has continued to shine since moving up to Worcester earlier this month. Through three starts at Triple-A, Tolle has accrued a 3.60 ERA, 0.87 WHIP and 17:2 K:BB in 15 innings.