'She's always there and watching over me': Red Sox pitcher Payton Tolle pays tribute to his late mom

As Payton Tolle prepared to make his start for the Boston Red Sox Saturday, before his team’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays was postponed due to rain, the 23-year-old pitcher posted a picture on his Instagram page.

The photo was of his mom, Jina, sitting in a hospital room wearing a johnny gown and raising her right hand in the air with her thumb, index finger and pinkie sticking up — the American Sign Language symbol for “I love you.”

Tolle posted an emoji of the same three-finger symbol as his caption for the photo to go along with a song called “Joyful” by Dante Bowe. Saturday was the two-year anniversary of his mom’s death.

“She was just always so much fun. She was funny. There were so many different ways that she lit up the room. She was just a badass,” Tolle told Chris Cotillo of MassLive in 2024. “The only reason people knew she had cancer was because of her hair. For a while, early on, the chemo didn’t take away her hair and people were like, ‘There’s no way she has cancer because of how positive she’s being.’

“She was just a positive influence on everyone around her. I got to witness it first-hand.”

A day after posting the picture online, Tolle will make his fourth start of the season for the Red Sox on Mother’s Day (1:35 p.m.) at Fenway Park.

With his mom on his mind, and one of her mottos — “You’re so pretty” — on his baseball glove, Tolle continues to pay tribute to the woman who made a lasting impression on everyone who knew her.

“The joy that she had, I try to keep with me, especially when it comes to baseball,” Tolle recently told Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. “She always said, ‘Show people why you play, who you play for, and why you love it.’ I just have so much joy playing this game. She helped me know it’s OK to show that.”

When Tolle made his big-league debut at Fenway Park last August, the bubbly lefty said postgame that he heard his mother “somewhere out there” in the crowd during the Red Sox’ game against the Pirates.

Payton Tolle's mom, Jina, passed away on this day two years ago following a long bout with cancer.

“She was my best friend.”

Tolle is scheduled to start today for the Boston Red Sox, and will have his mom on his mind and glove at Fenway Park 🤟: https://t.co/P1txCCDeUOpic.twitter.com/iRH6iuqhh8— Tommy Cassell (@tommycassell44) May 9, 2026

Tolle’s mom died on May 9, 2024, following a lengthy battled with colon cancer. She passed away just two months before Boston selected Tolle with the No. 50 overall pick in the MLB Draft.

“Just being able to have her through some of the highs and some of the lows of everything was really helpful,” Tolle said on Cassell’s Corner podcast. “She was just a rock for me. She was there every single time.

Tolle finished with: “She was my best friend.”

When Tolle pitches this season, the Oklahoma native wears a black baseball glove on his right hand with the aforementioned quote of “You’re so pretty” inscribed on it. The saying comes from his mom, who used to utter those three words to her oldest son before all his baseball, basketball and football games.

“(I) pick sayings from her that kind of remind me of her,” Tolle told the T&G. “… I got a few more quotes.”

One of those quotes includes “Be a Tigger, not an Eeyore” — a Winnie the Pooh reference that Dan Roche of WBZ recently asked Tolle about.

“It’s just always (about) choosing that right attitude and attacking life with a good attitude,” Tolle said. “Because there’s plenty of people, plenty of things that are going to want to steal your joy and just having that mindset of ‘I’m not going to let you steal my joy.’”

On Sunday, Tolle will toe the rubber in Boston. Before he tosses his first pitch, the 6-foot-6 left-hander will stick his hand in the air and perform the gesture his mom did in the hospital room a few years back.

The signal of love.

It’s become Payton Tolle’s calling card on the mound — and a way for him to honor his late mom. His latest tribute comes on Mother’s Day at Fenway Park.

“She’s always there and watching over me,” Tolle said.

—Contact Tommy Cassell at tcassell@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @tommycassell44.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Payton Tolle pays tribute to his mother ahead of start with Red Sox