CHICAGO — Trevor Story couldn’t save Garrett Crochet’s no-hitter Sunday. But he did save the Red Sox from an embarrassing early-season sweep.
Chase Meidroth’s eighth-inning single to end Crochet’s bid at history got past a diving Story in the hole. The shortstop said it was simply a case of “good aim.” On the offensive side of things, Story had some good aim of his own Sunday: deep in the right field corner for a two-run double in the sixth inning, then over the left field fence in the ninth.
“It’s huge, man,” said Crochet. “He has had a couple solid games in a row. It has been nice to see him healthy and having tons of success.”
Hitting fifth for a Red Sox club that has not been able to do anything offensively for a full week, Story made sure a two-out mini-rally did not go to waste in the sixth. After Alex Bregman singled and Wilyer Abreu walked, Story smoked a Shane Smith pitch 339 feet into deep right. Brooks Baldwin made a valiant effort to catch it but couldn’t corral a ball that would have been a homer in 11 ballparks.
“That ball he hit to right, he crushed,” said manager Alex Cora. “Balanced, on-time, swinging at strikes. When he does that, he becomes very dangerous.”
Story’s double put the Red Sox up 2-0, which seemed like more than enough considering Crochet’s dominance. But after Chicago closed the gap to 2-1 with three straight hits in the eighth, the game was in the balance. Story stepped to the plate against journeyman Bryse Wilson and went 404 feet for his third homer of the year. It was Boston’s first home run in a full week — and much needed breathing room in a win.
“We’ve hit the ball hard,” Story said. “It’s just a matter of conditions being a little better for us.”
Aroldis Chapman pitched a scoreless ninth to seal the victory. There are no such things as must-wins for MLB teams in mid-April but Sunday’s game felt like a big one for a Red Sox team that desperately avoided wanting to be swept by a team that lost 121 years ago.
Story, as Crochet’s running mate, made sure that didn’t happen. He continued a strong offensive start to the season that has seen him hit .308 with three homers, two doubles and an .805 OPS in 17 games.
“As we’ve seen, this is the big leagues,“ Story said. ”You can’t take any nights off. Big league team out there. They won the series. We had to win this one today. Hopefully, we can ride this momentum into Tampa and have a winning road trip.”
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