Trevor Story is a great player. He’s a two-time All-Star, a two-time Silver Slugger and one of the best all-around shortstops in baseball.
But he’s also just one man, and if fans expected Trevor Story to solve all of the Red Sox problems by himself, Tuesday was a reminder that the club’s issues won’t be easily fixed.
Coming off Monday’s thrilling walk-off and with Story making his season debut, the Red Sox couldn’t capitalize on their momentum and fell back to Earth with a listless 9-3 loss to Kansas City. Outside of a two-run rally in the bottom of the fifth the Red Sox bats were mostly silent, and the Royals just teed off on Boston’s beleaguered pitching staff.
Story going 0 for 4 with three strikeouts in his return didn’t help, but if the Red Sox pitching staff is going to surrender 15 hits, three home runs and a season-high six stolen bases, there’s only so much any position player can do.
Kutter Crawford, making his 14th start of the season, didn’t have it on Tuesday. He allowed seven hits, walked two and gave up three runs over 3.1 innings on a Kyle Isbel sacrifice fly and a two-run home run by Drew Waters. He was able to keep the Royals off balance, striking out six while drawing 20 whiffs, but he left with the Red Sox on the ropes after hitting Bobby Witt Jr., forcing Red Sox manager Alex Cora to summon Brennan Bernardino from the bullpen.
As he so often has this season, Bernardino delivered. The lefty forced a lineout for the second out, and after intentionally walking Salvador Perez got MJ Melendez to fly out to end the inning. Adam Duvall led off the following inning with a towering solo home run over the Green Monster, and then Alex Verdugo doubled and came around to score on a Connor Wong RBI single to cut the deficit to 3-2.
Unfortunately, Boston’s other depth relievers couldn’t pull their weight.
Dinelson Lamet, making his Red Sox debut, immediately got knocked around. The six-year big league veteran gave up three runs over two innings, including a two-run home run by MJ Melendez, to put Kansas City up 6-2 in the sixth. Then recently acquired right-hander Nick Robertson came on and gave up three more runs in the seventh, with Michael Massey charging a two-run shot of his own to make it 9-2.
The Red Sox eventually got a run back on an RBI double by Jarren Duran, but by that point it was too little, too late. Kansas City starter Brady Singer posted a quality start by allowing three runs over 6.2 innings, and the Royals bullpen took care of business from there.
For Story, it was evident the shortstop will need more at bats to get his timing down. Tuesday he swung at nine pitches in four at bats, whiffing on six, fouling off two and grounding out on the only one he put into play. He didn’t see more than four pitches in any of his at bats and never got to ball two.
If there was one silver lining, Story did have a clean game in the field and made an impressive throw from his knee to nail the speedy Bobby Witt Jr. in the seventh.
The Red Sox will look to get back on track Wednesday for the third game of the four-game series. Boston is expected to go with a bullpen game, with Nick Pivetta likely to serve as the bulk guy, and Jordan Lyles (3-12, 6.24 ERA) is slated to start for Kansas City. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m.