Red Sox pitcher Payton Tolle is dialing it up at more than 100 m.p.h.

Red Sox pitcher Payton Tolle concluded he'd been too fine in his first two Grapefruit League outings.Barry Chin/Globe Staff

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Never underestimate the power of a free T-shirt.

On Wednesday, lefthander Payton Tolle offered a showcase for his status as the top prospect in the Red Sox system. He entered in the sixth inning of a 4-0 loss to the Yankees and over three scoreless innings faced 10 batters and struck out seven, including a stretch of five straight punchouts.

Tolle featured a blistering fastball, topping out at 100.4 miles per hour — notable since the Sox give out “Fuego” T-shirts to pitchers who unleash a pitch of at least 100 in a game. That prompted Tolle to seek out pitching coach Andrew Bailey and pitching strategist Devin Rose.

Tolle: “Are we doing T-shirts this year?”

Bailey: “You keep doing that, you’ll get a lot of outs, we’ll win a lot of games and get a trophy at the end of the year.”

Tolle: “A T-shirt would be nice along the way.”

Tolle hadn’t been sharp in his first two Grapefruit League outings, allowing three runs over 3⅔ innings with just one strikeout. He concluded he’d been too fine.

“I’ve been trying to pitch and my game isn’t really that,” he said.

And so on Wednesday, he let it rip, averaging 98 m.p.h. with his four-seamer. Though he threw hard, Tolle and manager Alex Cora viewed his ability to throw a mid-80s curveball for strikes as even more significant given that he’d lacked a reliable breaking ball in the big leagues last year.

“If he’s able to [throw the curveball for strikes], he’s really tough to hit,” said Cora. “If we can do that over and over and over again, then we’ve got a really good pitcher.”

Bailey described Tolle’s outing as “electric” and confirmed he will get a T-shirt. (Minor leaguer Juan Valera also has received a “Fuego” shirt this spring.)

Four of Tolle’s seven strikeouts came on curves, with two on fastballs and one on a cutter. After his first strikeout on a curveball, which ended the sixth inning, Tolle left the mound with a double fist pump.

“Play with joy. You’re going to see what I’m feeling,” he said. “That’s how I play and I’m not ashamed of that.”

Mirror, mirror

An unexpected arrival showed up on the bullpen mound in camp this week: a mirror. The team ordered it on behalf of veteran righthander Sonny Gray. Why?

“You can tell a lot about yourself when you take the time to look yourself in the mirror,” said Gray, who will pitch a camp game on the backfields of Fenway South on Thursday.

Sonny Gray has used a mirror at Red Sox spring training as a means to visually inspect his pitching form.Alex Speier

Gray’s ability to repeat his delivery is a pitching superpower, creating the basis for tremendous control (his 5.0 percent walk rate last year was fifth-lowest among qualifying starters) and deception. Shadow-pitching in front of a mirror on the slope of a mound in uniform — not merely on flat ground or in a clubhouse — allows him to visualize precise movements in game conditions.

The 36-year-old was introduced to a mirror on the mound as a tool for refining mechanics at Vanderbilt. Its value quickly became apparent.

“I’m a visual person. I like to I think if I see something, then I can do it. That’s with anything, literally,” he said. “[The mirror] just helps me not only feel what I want to feel, but then actually visually see what I want to see, see what I’m feeling.”

While Gray hasn’t always used it over a career that is in its 16th season, he’s done so often, with a greater commitment to it in recent years. It’s part of meticulous between-starts work that Gray views as the basis for execution in games.

“When you’re in that fight-or-flight state of mind as an athlete, you don’t know where you’re going to pull from. … If you’re wearing a tool belt, you need to fill your tool belt with beneficial tools. You’re going to fill it with something,” he said. “You’re either going to fill it with self-doubt or with [crummy] self-talk or with something. I just try to fill mine with positive reinforcements, positive things, beneficial things.”

And his reflections on, well, his reflection offers one form of reinforcement.

Second thoughts

Marcelo Mayer played second base for the second straight game, with Caleb Durbin at third. But the Sox are still evaluating their infield alignment, with plans to have Mayer get a game at third base over the weekend.

“I have no doubts that [Mayer] can handle [second] … Caleb can play second, too,” said Cora. “From my end, I want to make sure we don’t have the revolving door in any position. I want to be as stable as possible.”

Cora reiterated that Durbin will be an everyday player, while offering a more measured description of Mayer’s role.

“He has a chance to break camp with us,” Cora said.

It was a blast

Cohasset native Ben Rice made the trip with the Yankees from Tampa to play at JetBlue Park for the first time in his career, celebrating with a home run over the Sox bullpen in right-center. While Wednesday marked Rice’s first game action at JetBlue, it wasn’t his first game there — the 27-year-old had attended Red Sox spring training as a fan … Patrick Sandoval and Kutter Crawford will throw up-and-down live batting practice sessions on Friday, simulating multiple innings … Non-roster invitee Vinny Nittoli experienced elbow pain after a relief appearance last Saturday and hasn’t pitched since. He was sent for an MRI Tuesday.