Boston Red Sox: Trevor Story’s 3 home run night a sign of better times
The Boston Red Sox may just be turning the corner, and Trevor Story‘s three home-run, seven RBI night against the Seattle Mariners could prove to be the turning point of their season. Or, the turning point may have already happened.
Boston has quietly won five of their last seven games, which includes a pair of series wins over the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros. They still have a long way to go to truly make up their brutal start to the season, but maybe things are starting to go their way.
Early on last night against the Mariners, that didn’t seem like it would be the case. Rich Hill only lasted two innings before Seattle chased him from the game, and he quickly put Boston in a 4-0 hole.
But then Story hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the second. And he did it again in the bottom of the third. Story indirectly drove in Alex Verdugo (he scored off a throwing error from Julio Rodriguez) to give the Sox the lead in the sixth, and then he put the game to bed with a three run blast in the eighth.
As Trevor Story heats up, so to do the Boston Red Sox
To say Story has been a disappointment early in his tenure with the Sox would be an understatement. Even with last night’s game under his belt, Story is still batting just .230, and his three home runs last night were more than he had hit in the previous 32 games he played this season.
Story isn’t alone is his struggles, but not everyone else on the roster is being paid $20 million a year either. His production through the first month and a half of the season had been extremely disappointing, but he was able to build himself some goodwill with last night’s game.
Lost in Story’s big game was how good the rest of the team was. Everyone but Kike Hernandez recorded at least one hit last night, with Verdugo and J.D. Martinez also recording multi-hit games.
And for as bad Hill was on the mound, Tanner Houck came on in relief and was phenomenal. He gave up just one hit and one walk while striking out six over four innings, giving Boston’s lineup a chance to get back in the game. Hirokazu Sawamura got in a bit of trouble in the eighth, but Matt Strahm was able to come on and bail him out.
If Story can get going on offense, and guys like Houck can figure things out in the bullpen, Boston could quickly find themselves right back on track. They may be a whooping 12 games out of first place in the American League East right now, and while it shouldn’t be expected for that gap to magically be erased, there is still a lot of baseball left to play this season.
Next. Sweet swinging stick of Rafael Devers leading the Sox. dark
The Boston Red Sox appear to be on the verge of putting their early season struggles behind them. If Story can continue to play like he did last night against the Mariners, it would go a long to way to helping Boston make up some ground in the standings.