The Red Sox may be headed into October with a little less steam than they’d like, but Trevor Story’s late-season surge gives them something real to lean on.
Boston’s September has been a perfectly ordinary 12-12, which doesn’t exactly scream momentum. The offense has sputtered, and a few important bats - including Willson Contreras and Ceddanne Rafaela - have been operating at less than full strength.
That leaves the pressure on the pitching staff, but it also raises the value of anyone who can provide an extra jolt. Story has become one of those players.
That’s a sharp turn from how his season opened. After a strong comeback year in 2024, when he delivered 25 homers, 31 steals and 4.1 bWAR, Story cratered early this season.
He was hitting just .206/.244/.303 with a 48 wRC+ and a 32.4% strikeout rate through mid-May before a sports hernia surgery sent him to the injured list for more than three months. At that point, it was easy to wonder whether the veteran shortstop was headed for a steep decline.
Instead, he flipped the script once he finally got back on the field. Since returning to Boston’s lineup on Aug.
30, Story has posted a .764 OPS and a 108 wRC+. FanGraphs has him tied for second on the team in fWAR over that stretch at 0.5, and he’s done it by contributing at the plate, in the field and on the bases.
The timing matters. Boston opens a Wild Card Round matchup against the Yankees, and Story has already shown he can handle that stage.
In last year’s Wild Card Round, he was one of the Red Sox’s best performers, putting up a 1.000 OPS in 13 plate appearances across the three games in New York. More broadly, he’s been a strong postseason hitter for his career, collecting 12 hits in 35 trips to the plate.
But there’s a catch, and it’s a big one: Story does not walk. He has never drawn a walk in the postseason, and he didn’t earn a single one in his first 13 games back from injury this year. Over the stretch run, he struck out 29 times and drew just four walks, one of them intentional.
That free-swinging approach will matter even more now, especially with Contreras and Rafaela dealing with injuries. Still, Story has shown over the last month that he can carry a heavy load in the lineup. The Red Sox are banking on that version of him showing up again in New York.
In Other News...
Yankees Just Gave Red Sox Fans More Motivation Before The Wild Card
With the Wild Card round looming, the Red Sox are approaching this matchup the way October usually demands, one series at a time. Boston has been laying out its rotation with this specific test in mind, and Chad Tracy has kept the message centered on the immediate challenge rather than peeking ahead to anything beyond it.
Across the diamond, Aaron Boones comments about already weighing pitching strategies for the Divisional round only add a little extra fuel to an already charged playoff meeting. Whether Boone intended it or not, it gives Boston plenty of bulletin-board material heading into a Yankees-Red Sox showdown where the first job is simple: survive the opening round and make sure the conversation about later series gets cut short. [Read more 🡒]
Cam Schlittler Just Made Yankees-Red Sox Game 1 Even More Heated
The playoff stage at Yankee Stadium was already going to bring plenty of edge, but Cam Schlittler has helped turn the opener into something even more combustible. The Yankees starter has been trading public jabs with Red Sox fans online, leaning into the noise instead of ducking it, and that has only sharpened the atmosphere around a rivalry that hardly needed extra fuel.
For Boston, the matchup matters because it is not just another October game, it is the first look at a series that now comes with a little more bite. Schlittler is set to be one of the key figures in the spotlight, and his duel with Red Sox starter Payton Tolle adds another layer to a night already heavy with history, tension and the kind of crowd energy that can tilt a series before it really gets going. [Read more 🡒]
Red Sox Rookie Suddenly Enters Yankees Wild Card Pitching Debate
The Red Sox have lined up their Wild Card Series rotation against the Yankees, with Payton Tolle set for Game 1, Sonny Gray for Game 2 and Ranger Surez available for a decisive Game 3 if it comes to that. But one of the more interesting developments came Friday, when rookie Jake Bennett worked 3 2/3 scoreless innings in relief, giving Boston another arm to think about as the games get tighter and every bullpen choice starts to matter.
Manager Chad Tracy still has a few pitching calls to make depending on how the series unfolds, and Bennetts outing only adds to the conversation. For a Red Sox staff that already has its starters mapped out, the bigger question may be how much trust Bennett has earned for October leverage, and whether his unexpected late-season push can turn into a real postseason role against their biggest rival. [Read more 🡒]