Trevor Story, healthy and ready to produce, powers Red Sox with 2 home runs

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BOSTON — It’s no secret how challenging the last few years have been for Trevor Story, battling ill-timed injuries that limited him to just 163 games over his first three years with the Boston Red Sox.

Now in the fourth year of his deal, Story is finally hoping to turn the page on the injury-riddled narrative that has followed him through the first part of his contract, and Friday night marked another chapter in the book of his Boston tenure.

The 32-year-old slammed three-run home runs in the first and seventh innings, respectively, to propel the Red Sox past the Chicago White Sox 10-3 in the opener of a four-game series. His five home runs lead the team.

TWO HOMERS!
SIX RBI!

Trevor Story is having himself a game! pic.twitter.com/wBYKuAiRLf

— MLB (@MLB) April 19, 2025

“This guy’s been hurt, and when he’s healthy, he’s 30-30,” manager Alex Cora said of Story’s potential to hit 30 homers and steal 30 bases. “This guy’s really good. We haven’t seen the healthy version of Trevor Story. My job is to keep him on the field, and I’ll do my best. Obviously, last year, that was a freak accident, right? But if he plays, he produces. So far, it’s been fun to watch.”

Story’s career in Boston has had so many starts and stops that it’s been difficult to glean what kind of offensive player he is at this point in his career. He started last season on a high note before missing five months after breaking his shoulder on a diving play. After a grueling recovery, Story was determined to return by the end of the season, but was still searching for his timing at the plate.

This year, he’s looked like a different player.

And through the early part of the year, he’s been exactly what the Red Sox have needed. Among the regular starting players, he leads the team with a .321 average and five home runs. He’s already stolen six bases, matching his total from last year in 26 games played. Aside from Rafael Devers, Story is the only player to appear in all 21 of Boston’s games this season. He’s started 20 of them and entered as a pinch runner in one.

“I feel really good,” Story said of his at-bats. “It’s been that way for a week or two and just focus on hitting the ball hard. That’s really it.”

He did just that in the first inning after Devers doubled and Alex Bregman walked. The 15 mph winds to straightaway center, with gusts up to 34 mph, might have helped, but still, Story crushed his first three-run homer of the game 427 feet to center with an exit velocity of 105 mph.

In the seventh, after Devers and Bregman had walked, Story clubbed his second three-run shot of the game, this time into the Monster seats, 365 feet off the bat at 99.4 mph. His 23 balls in play with an exit velo of 100-plus mph is tied for ninth in the majors.

“He’s such a good athlete that we’ve taken away the thought process now,” Cora said. “Yeah, he has a plan going in, but we give him the license to swing. Sometimes it doesn’t look good, metrics-wise and people, they’re critical about it, but I’m not. I want him to be an athlete, to be in a position to attack and execute. He’s been doing that.”

While Boston’s offense has relied on Bregman and Devers, particularly with Triston Casas’ bat slow to start the season, the addition of Story’s offense lengthens the lineup. Friday marked his eighth multi-hit game. Paul Goldschmidt leads the majors with 10 multi-hit games.

“It’s easy to forget how potent and electric his bat has been at times, and he hasn’t been 100 percent healthy,” said Rob Refsnyder, who had a 3-for-4 night at the plate. “So to get Trevor healthy and strong, he sets the tone with his work ethic and the way he goes about his business.”

Story’s two homers made up for two errors the normally sure-handed shortstop made in the field, one throwing and one fielding. But neither fazed rookie starter Hunter Dobbins, who turned in his second straight fine performance.

Dobbins allowed two runs, one earned, on three hits over six innings of work. He struck out six and didn’t issue a walk. He threw 79 pitches, 55 for strikes and registered 11 swings-and-misses.

Dobbins retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced, with an error from Story in the first, the only base runner allowed through three frames. Andrew Benintendi led off the fourth with a solo homer, and then Joshua Palacios grounded out with a runner on third in the sixth to score a second run.

Dobbins, who made his big-league debut two weeks ago in Boston’s second game of a doubleheader against the St. Louis Cardinals, picked up his second win of the season. He’s the first Red Sox pitcher to win his first two career starts for the Red Sox since Tanner Houck won his first three in 2020.

“He’s a good pitcher,” Cora said. “He’s got good stuff. He has command of the fastball, which is very important at this level.”

After dropping two of three to the White Sox on the road last weekend, the Red Sox needed to start the seven-game homestand on the right note, and Story set the tone from the start. The Red Sox are hoping this is finally the year they can see him put together a full season.

“I do feel good up there, I feel like myself,” Story said. “The comfortability (at the plate), not fighting for your health every day has a lot to do with it.”

(Photo: Brian Fluharty / Getty Images)

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