The Story keeps getting better.
Colorado Rockies shortstop Trevor Story homered again on Wednesday, giving the rookie four home runs in three games to start his career.
Elias Sports Bureau research reveals that he’s the first player in the modern era (since 1900) to hit four home runs in three games (three players have hit three). He’s also the first player in the modern era whose first four hits were all home runs.
Story’s four home runs are one shy of the Rockies' leader for home runs in April 2015, when Corey Dickerson had five. Story is also off to a much better start than when former Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki began with Colorado. Tulowitzki was 1-for-12 in his first three games with the Rockies.
How Story is hitting them
Story's four home runs came off a pair of 92 mph fastballs, a changeup and a slider. One was at the bottom of the strike zone, and one was just off the outside edge. The other two were lower-half, inner-half. Three of the four came with the count 1-0 or 2-0. The other, his first, was on an 0-1 pitch.
Story doesn’t have a single, double or triple yet, but he’s hit the ball hard. He has three line-drive outs.
He also has four strikeouts in 14 plate appearances. He struck out 141 times in 512 at-bats between Double-A and Triple-A last season.
So who is Trevor Story, anyway?
Story was drafted in the first round (45th overall) of the 2011 MLB draft by the Rockies. The pick used to draft him was compensation for the Rockies losing RP Octavio Dotel in free agency. Story ranked 85th in Keith Law's top 100 prospects in 2013, but that was the only year in which he appeared in the top 100. During his minor league career, Story hit 67 home runs in 535 minor league games while never hitting more than 20 in a season.
Looking ahead to Friday
Story should get a nice ovation when he makes his Coors Field debut on Friday. Elias data indicates that only four players in the modern era have homered in each of their team’s first four games to start a season: Willie Mays (1971), Mark McGwire (1998), Nelson Cruz (2011) and Chris Davis (2013).