Story not dodging criticism of early struggles

BOSTON — When Trevor Story broke into the big leagues with the Rockies in 2016, he made a dazzling immediate mark, hitting homers in his first four games. The start of a new chapter of his career in Boston has not gone as smoothly.

Story heard boos at Fenway Park in response to his 0-for-4, four-strikeout Thursday afternoon against Angels ace Shohei Ohtani. Yes, Story heard the crowd response. But even as he admitted such a fan reaction had not been a part of his experience over six years in Colorado, Story said he had no issues with the negative reaction to his performance.

“Of course you hear it, but that’s part of it. Strike out four times like that, that’s to be expected a little bit,” Story said. “We all just want to win. I know the fans do, too.

“At the end of the day, we expect more out of ourselves than anybody else does. I hold myself to a high standard. That standard wasn’t met. Obviously the fans feel the same way.”

To Story, there was one sensible response to his performance, which left him with a .210/.293/.296 line: Go to work. After Thursday’s game, Story headed straight to the Red Sox batting cage and spent more than an hour there working with hitting coach Pete Fatse and teammates J.D. Martinez and Alex Verdugo. He thus wasn’t available to the media after the game, but on Friday, Story said that he hadn’t been “dodging” the media.

He said he’d been unaware that reporters had been waiting to interview him and apologized for any miscommunication. Story thus made a point of making himself available Friday to discuss his early struggles with the Red Sox.