These miscues are different from those miscues, Story said, but they all stemmed from footwork and throwing — which he feels he has straightened out.
He described his desired style at shortstop as “almost freestyle.”
“It’s just being athletic, using my strengths, trying to do that as much as possible. Not trying to make it look a certain way. Just get it done,” Story said. “I feel good. Obviously, errors are no good. So it was a bad first week. But feeling good now.”
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That is good enough for his bosses, who are standing by him.
“He is who he is. Range-wise, a lot better than last year. Outcome [has been] inconsistent with that. But we like him as the shortstop,” said manager Alex Cora. “He’s our shortstop, and he’s been elite throughout his career. You’re going to go through [bad] stretches. It happened early in the season for him.”
Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said: “Trevor’s battled through things like this at times. He’s come out of them defensively and at the plate, and it happens pretty quickly. He made some really nice plays defensively [on Tuesday]. . . He’s been a really good player in this league for a really long time. I think when he gets going, it’s also easier for him to emerge as a leader among the group and somebody who commands a ton of respect.”
At the outset of the offseason, Breslow was clear: Story would be the Red Sox’ shortstop in 2026. They wouldn’t consider, say, putting Marcelo Mayer at his natural position and moving Story to second.
“When he was on the field at shortstop last year, it was very stabilizing. He had a great season for us. Could he have had a great season for us at second base. Maybe? Probably?” Breslow said. “But also [the immediate, definite decision early in the offseason was meant] to provide some stability and certainty through the offseason, coming into spring training, knowing that we did have to make other decisions around the infield. It just seemed to make sense.”
For a second time in 13 games, Roman Anthony was not in the starting lineup as part of the Sox’ outfield/DH rotation.
Instead, Jarren Duran played left field and Masataka Yoshida was the DH.
“We’re going to play everybody,” Cora said. “Masa is putting good at-bats. We need him to keep going. [Duran] didn’t play a few games during the week. This is the rotation. . . Today was [Anthony’s] day.”
Anthony will play the next five games through the end of the road trip, Cora noted.
Duran was 0 for 4, dropping his average to .162, while Yoshida was 1 for 3 with a run scored.
The Red Sox’ recent former Cardinals, Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray, spent time pregame catching up with former mates in their first trip to St. Louis since being traded during the offseason.
Gray won’t pitch this series, but Contreras was in his usual spot at first base, batting fourth.
He was greeted with a rousing ovation from Cardinals fans in his first at-bat and struck out looking against St. Louis righthanded starter Dustin May, who picked up his first win of the season. Contreras wound up going 0 for 4 with two strikeouts.
“It’s good to come to a ballpark where you know that you created a lot of good relationships,” said Contreras, who played for the Cardinals for three years after playing against them for seven seasons with the Cubs. “It’s good to know that everybody’s doing good. The whole family is doing great. They’re having fun. They’re playing good, and it’s good to see them smile. So I’m happy for them, and hopefully we get three good games here.”
Contreras was in the spotlight with his new team, too. He joined most of his teammates — and Cora — in wearing T-shirts that depicted Contreras as Bowser, the bipedal fire-breathing monster/turtle/kidnapper of Super Mario video game fame. Contreras said Story started calling him Bowser during spring training.
The Red Sox optioned infielder Anthony Seigler from the 10-day injured list to Triple-A Worcester.
Seigler, acquired from the Brewers in the Caleb Durbin trade in February, sat out for much of spring training because of left knee patellar tendinopathy, an injury that first popped up over the offseason. He played in one rehab game with Worcester on Thursday before being formally demoted to that affiliate.
Tim Healey can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @timbhealey. Alex Speier can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @alexspeier.
