Red Sox: Trevor Story homered on the hardest hit ball of his career

Red Sox infielder Trevor Story hit the ball as hard as he ever had

It isn’t always about how high you hit it or how far the ball travels. As breathtaking as those majestic skyscraping 500-foot home runs are to see, a line drive can do just as much damage if you hit it hard enough. Trevor Story proved that with a home run that put the Boston Red Sox on the board in Toronto on Tuesday.

With two outs in the second inning, Story patiently worked his way into a 2-2 count while waiting for a pitch to drive. On the seventh pitch he saw from Blue Jays starter Ross Stripling, Story smashed an 85 mph changeup over the plate for a solo home run to left field.

The home run was a bullet that shot into the Blue Jays bullpen in the blink of an eye. It only traveled 375 feet and barely cleared the left field wall but the 113.4 mph exit velocity was the hardest-hit ball of Story’s career.

The exit velocity is tied for 45th in the majors this season and ranks in the top-eight percent of the league. Franchy Cordero (117.9) and Rafael Devers (113.7) are the only Red Sox hitters to record a harder-hit batted ball this season, per Baseball Savant.

Story’s 89 mph average exit velocity and 39.2 Hard Hit percentage are both down slightly from his career levels. He rates a bit below average, sitting in the 49th percentile in AVG exit velocity and 44th percentile in HardHit%. He’s still barreling the ball though, ranking in the 80th percentile in Barrel percentage. His 11.9 Barrel% would be his highest since 2018.

What makes his latest home run interesting extends beyond the elite exit velocity. It’s also the surprisingly low 17 degree launch angle.

MLB classifies a Barrel as a batted ball struck at least 98 mph with a launch angle between 26-30 degrees. For every mph over 98, the range of launch angles expands. Story hit this ball so hard that it classified as a Barrel despite its low launch angle.

According to Alex Speier of The Boston Globe, Story recorded only the seventh over-the-fence home run in the majors this year that had a launch angle of 17 degrees or less.

Story now has 12 home runs this season, trailing only Devers (17) on the Red Sox. His team-leading 52 RBI ranks ninth in the majors and leads all second basemen.

The second-inning homer started a rally that eventually led to the Red Sox taking a late lead, only for the bullpen to blow it in the ninth when the Blue Jays walked off with the win. Boston had been on a streak of 16 consecutive wins in games that Story recorded at least one RBI but they have now dropped two in a row during this trip to Toronto despite Story driving in a run in each game.

The Red Sox will aim to salvage this series by avoiding a sweep in Wednesday night’s finale. They need Story to launch some more rockets in order to keep up with this powerful Blue Jays lineup.