Trevor Story's late home run helps Red Sox flip script on Rangers

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Sep 17, 2026

Published in Baseball

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This has been a rough stretch for the Red Sox offense, which has effectively turned into a pumpkin after a torrid two months. This week in particular the bats have fallen silent, and for much of Thursday night the Red Sox looked like they were headed towards a discouraging series sweep at the worst possible time.

Things took an especially dark turn when Willson Contreras left the game in the eighth inning after being hit in the hand by a pitch, but while the specter of his absence will loom over the club in the days to come, Trevor Story once again proved that you can never count this Red Sox team out.

The veteran shortstop came through with a go-ahead, three-run home run in the eighth inning, flipping the script and giving the Red Sox a badly needed 4-3 win to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Texas Rangers.

Story’s shot came with one out against Rangers closer Jacob Latz, completing a three-run comeback and cutting Boston’s magic number to clinch a playoff spot to three with nine games remaining.

Prior to Story’s home run, Thursday was shaping up to be among the club’s worst losses of the season.

A hallmark of the offense’s struggles early in the year was a lot of empty, uncompetitive at bats, tons of swing and miss and a general inability to make good contact. Even with the Rangers opting for a bullpen game led by Cody Bradford, whose fastball averages just 88.6 mph, the Red Sox couldn’t square anything up.

Through the first five innings the Red Sox only managed two hits, both singles in the fourth inning. That put runners at the corners with two outs, but Jarren Duran grounded out to squander the opportunity.

It was a similar story in the sixth, when Wilyer Abreu singled and Adley Rutschman finally did some damage with a ground-rule double in the left-field gap. Had the ball stayed in play Abreu probably would have scored, but instead the Red Sox had two men in scoring position for Story, who worked a full count and struck out to end the threat.

The offense did nothing to pick up Sonny Gray, who wasn’t perfect but did everything he could to keep the Red Sox in the game.

The veteran right-hander allowed a solo home run to Josh Jung with two outs in the first, and in the second he walked the first two batters of the inning, both of whom came around to score on an RBI bloop single by Danny Jansen and a run-scoring squeeze bunt by Evan Carter.

Gray settled down afterwards and retired 14 of the last 16 batters he faced from the second inning into the seventh. He was charged with three runs over 6 1/3 innings and limited the Rangers to three hits and three walks with six strikeouts.

Even when the Red Sox finally scored in the top of the seventh, they did so without recording a hit. Nate Eaton and Caleb Durbin led off with consecutive walks and Eaton advanced to third after Nick Sogard hit a rocket of a fly out to the center-field wall. But with one out and a chance to fight back into the game Roman Anthony grounded into a run-scoring fielder’s choice. He advanced to second after the Rangers threw away the double-play attempt, but Mickey Gasper grounded out to end the inning.

Then came the eighth.

Once again the Red Sox got two men on base right away, with Abreu drawing a leadoff walk before Contreras was hit in the right hand by a pitch. He immediately left the game with the trainer and was replaced at first by Isiah Kiner-Falefa, but while the Red Sox worried about their slugger, the Rangers pulled Jakob Junis for their closer Latz, who has been among the most dominant closers in the American League this year.

Latz drew a pop out from Rutschman, but then Story stepped up to the plate and everything changed.

With the lead in hand Wyatt Olds and Alec Gamboa pitched a scoreless eighth, and with Aroldis Chapman unavailable, Garrett Whitlock came on for the ninth and locked down the save for the win.