This week, the Boston Red Sox have found their margin for error shrinking while also increasing their number of mistakes.
Following the injury to rookie sensation Roman Anthony, the team has now dropped three consecutive games, each one more disappointing than the last. After poor pitching early on Wednesday and Friday, the defense faltered on Saturday against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
In the bottom of the second inning, with the bases loaded, Arizona’s Jake McCarthy hit a ground ball right to shortstop Trevor Story, a potential inning-ending double play. However, Story, usually reliable, got ahead of himself, lost focus, and watched the ball roll into shallow left field. The error allowed two runs to score on the play, and three runs in total came across that inning.
Trevor Story talks crucial error
Story’s wasn’t the only defensive miscue on the night, as left fielder Jarren Duran pulled up on a seventh-inning fly ball that he thought center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela would catch, the second time that’s happened in the last few weeks. And the Red Sox’s offense has been so feeble in Anthony’s absence that they can’t afford these kinds of mistakes.
After Boston’s eventual 5-1 loss, Story was quick to take the blame, admitting there was pretty much no excuse for a veteran shortstop not to at least get one out in that situation.
“I felt like I got a good read on it,” Story said, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive. “I was there for it and then just tried to get it out of my glove before I had it. Just at the last second, didn’t secure the ball.
“It’s tough. Mistakes are gonna happen in baseball, but in that situation, to get a ground ball there, I probably should have tried to just get one with it because McCarthy’s running pretty fast. It’s a tough one. I feel like it changed the momentum of the game. I think they scored three that inning, so it ended up being the answer in the game.”
According to ESPN’s playoff odds, the Red Sox still have a 94.0% chance to make it to October. But that already feels a bit lower than it should be, given the momentum the team built in August.
Story knows he has to make the simple plays the rest of the way when the ball gets hit to him. Will his teammates follow suit?
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