NEW YORK -- Forget about learning a new position. Trevor Story barely had time to take the bat off his shoulder in spring training before he found himself playing a game that counted for real in front of 46,000 hostile witnesses.
So it should come as no surprise that the big free agent splash of the Red Sox offseason showed some rust in Friday's season-opening 6-5 loss in Yankee Stadium.
Bogaerts exits early, bullpen struggles in Boston's Opening Day loss
A late free-agent signee who appeared in only five spring training games, Story went 0 for 5 with a strikeout and left four runners on base on Friday. He fouled out, popped gently to right, reached on a fielder's choice, and skied to right.
He looked late on fastballs and fooled by a steady diet of sliders, but the $140 million free agent splash has plenty of time to showing Red Sox fans what he can do.
"Getting close," Story said of his timing. "I feel like I'm taking better swings, so I'm obviously not quite there yet, but I feel good about where I'm at."
Debuting for a new team after spending more than a decade in another organization would be tough on any player, but doing so for the Red Sox against the Yankees in one of the most heated rivalries in sports is another challenge altogether.
Story relished the atmosphere, even if the result didn't go his way. It's part of the reason he chose to leave the Rockies for the Red Sox in the first place."It's intense," he said. "That's fun, man. That's the kind of atmosphere you want to play in. Every pitch counts and that's the way we're taking it. I just wish we had gotten it done."
Making his first start at second base, Story looked comfortable and take-charge. He glided across the bag to field a grounder in front of Xander Bogaerts at shortstop early in the game, and later secured a popup in short right field in front of Gold Glover Jackie Bradley Jr.
Unfortunately, he couldn't quite reach Josh Donaldson's seeing-eye grounder that won the game. It shot the gap between Story and shortstop Jonathan Arauz.
"It was kind of perfectly right in between us," Story said. "We just couldn't really get there. Just perfect placement."
The Red Sox signed Story for six years because they believe in his bat, glove, and wheels. One game doesn't change that. Now that he's experienced the playoff intensity of Red Sox-Yankees, he's looking to make one important change.
"That's what I was expecting and that's exactly what I got," he said. "It was fun, but winning is much more fun."
"story" - Google News
April 09, 2022 at 08:59PM
https://ift.tt/HvEnFz0
Trevor Story shows rust in quiet Red Sox debut vs. Yankees - NBC Sports Boston
"story" - Google News
https://ift.tt/43pTgw1
https://ift.tt/ixPQv8g
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Trevor Story shows rust in quiet Red Sox debut vs. Yankees - NBC Sports Boston"
Post a Comment