Boston Red Sox fans booed Trevor Story at Fenway Park

Red Sox fans aren’t appreciating Trevor Story’s lack of production

The Fenway Faithful is getting frustrated with Trevor Story. A smattering of boos grew increasingly louder with every strikeout from the Boston Red Sox second baseman.

There was plenty to complain about during Thursday’s 8-0 shellacking at the hands of the Los Angeles Angels but no player drew the wrath of the crowd more than Story. An 0-for-4 day with four strikeouts is about as bad as it gets.

Story struck out swinging on a high splitter from Shohei Ohtani to lead off the first inning. Ohtani put him away with only three pitches in the third inning, blowing a 97 mph fastball by him for a swinging strike three.

The Red Sox had a golden opportunity to put a run on the board in the fifth when Jackie Bradley Jr. led off the inning with a double but Ohtani quickly put down the next three batters, including Story, who swung through a slider for strike three.

His last opportunity would come in the seventh with a runner on first and Story representing the tying run. He worked his way into a favorable 3-0 count only for Ohtani to battle back with three consecutive fastballs for strikes.

Ohtani was every bit as good as advertised in a rare appearance at Fenway. The two-way star collected a pair of hits and drove in a run while serving as his team’s designated hitter and spending the rest of his time on the mound.

Ohtani shut out the Red Sox over seven innings, allowing six hits without a walk and striking out 11. He recorded 29 swings-and-misses against Red Sox hitters, nine of which were by Story.

A pitcher as talented as Ohtani can make any hitter look foolish with his fastball that can hit triple digits, a sharp slider and a splitter that can disappear as it reaches the plate. There’s no shame in striking out against him but doing so four times in the same game is a tough day at the office.

It’s been a tough season so far for Story, whose batting average dropped to a woeful .210 with this dreadful performance.

As excited as Red Sox fans were to see their team spend on one of the top free-agents on the market, their excitement comes with high expectations. Story hasn’t delivered and the fans are letting him know.

This is, of course, entirely unfair to Story. Not only is he adapting to a new city in a new league, he’s doing so with only about a week of training camp to prepare. The lockout delayed his chance to sign as a free-agent until camp was almost over. As soon as he arrived, he had to leave again for the birth of his child. Position players usually get about six weeks to ramp up in spring training but the lockout gave them less time to prepare this year. Story barely saw any action at all. We’re a month into the season but we’ve only barely reached the timeframe that Story would typically have in camp.

Story showed signs of breaking out of his early-season funk last night, collecting a pair of doubles and driving in three runs. That’s the version of the two-time All-Star we expected to see. He’ll get it going, it’s just taking time.

Unfortunately, time is a luxury this team doesn’t have. With the Red Sox lineup failing to find success, Story’s struggles are being magnified. Until this offense starts clicking, the boo birds will flock to Fenway.