In unsurprising news, Red Sox second baseman Trevor Story has been named American League Player of the Week for the week of May 16-22, Major League Baseball announced on Monday.
Story is coming off his best stretch in a Red Sox uniform to date after feasting on two American League West opponents at Fenway Park. In seven games against the Astros and Mariners, the right-handed hitting slugger slashed a blistering .360/.452/1.120 with one double, six home runs, 14 RBIs, 10 runs scored, two stolen bases, five walks, and four strikeouts across 31 trips to the plate. Boston went 6-1 in those contests.
On Monday, Story came through in the clutch by clubbing a game-tying home run off Astros reliever Phil Maton in the seventh inning of an eventual 6-3 win. The 428-foot solo shot was Story’s first Fenway Park homer as a member of the Sox.
Three days later, the 29-year-old went off for three home runs and seven RBIs as part of a 12-6 blowout victory over the Mariners. It marked the second three-homer game of his big-league career and the first time a second baseman had ever crushed three homers and stole a base in the same game. He also hit a grand slam on Friday and went deep again on Sunday to bring his season total up to seven.
To go along with those seven long balls, Story is now batting .226/.310/.438 on the year with 29 RBIs, 21 runs scored, a team-leading five stolen bases, 16 walks, and 45 strikeouts across 36 games spanning 158 plate appearances.
Story, who signed a six-year, $140 million contract with Boston in March, becomes the first Red Sox player to earn American League Player of the Week honors this season. The two-time All-Star accomplished the National League version of the feat four times in his tenure with the Rockies.
(Picture of Trevor Story: Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)
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