BOSTON — Trevor Story’s 23rd homer of the season was certainly one of his stranger homers, and definitely his shortest.
In the bottom of the sixth with the Boston Red Sox up 5-3 on the Cleveland Guardians, Story sliced a slider from reliever Jakob Junis down the right-field line. Outfielder Jhonkensy Noel raced over and attempted to get a glove on the ball, right near Pesky’s Pole. The ball initially hit his glove, then the pole, then Noel’s glove again before bouncing off a fan.
Initially it was ruled a foul ball as Story raced to second, thinking it was a ground-rule double. Story stood on second as the play went under umpire review with an eventual ruling that it was indeed a homer.
At 306 feet, it marked the shortest non-inside-the-park homer in the majors this season. Ceddanne Rafaela’s 308 foot shot to Pesky’s Pole on June 4 marked the second-shortest.
It’s called the Pesky Pole for a reason!
Trevor Story lines this ball down the right field line for a home run! pic.twitter.com/4mZTytrbWx
— MLB (@MLB) September 1, 2025
“I don’t care, it was nice,” Story said. “It was obviously cool to get one on the Pesky Pole. I think that’s the first one I’ve got. So, yeah, it was crazy, I didn’t know what was going on at first. And then finally, like the last few clips (on the video board), I saw it hit the pole, so I felt good about it.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora credited the team’s video reviewer Mike Brenly for his sharp eye on calling for the review.
“Brenly was the one that saw the whole thing,” Cora said. “(Bench coach) Ramon (Vazquez) called Mikey and he was like, ‘We have to challenge this one.’ And we did.”
Story, who’s now hitting .260 with a .744 OPS along with 23 homers, 23 doubles and 24 stolen bases in a comeback year, was a bit perplexed when he was told to stop at second base by the umpires.
“It’s weird, for sure, you’re trying to stay locked in, in case it’s a foul ball,” he said. “So, yeah, just kind of a weird time. But after I saw the last couple of clips (on the video board), I felt good about it being a home run.”
The Guardians’ replay coordinator relayed to the dugout that the ball slipped out of Noel’s glove and caromed off the foul pole.
“They got it right,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said. “It was a homer.”
But that’s not how Noel saw it.
“I was trying to catch the ball and I felt I ran into a kid,” Noel said through interpreter Agustín Rivero. “That’s the recollection I have. I ran into a kid and I don’t know how they ruled that. … When I hit the kid, that’s when I felt the ball came out of my glove.”
Noel said he heard some fans in the area claiming it should have been ruled a foul ball. He was hoping for fan interference. Instead, it was a homer.
“I think it shouldn’t have been a homer,” Noel said. “Maybe a double, OK, because of the situation, but not a homer.”
Noel added the game might have gone differently had the Guardians needed to erase only a one-run deficit in the late innings, instead of a two-run hole.
“That changed the whole game,” he said.
For Noel, the home run came in the first at-bat of his first inning on defense since being recalled from the minors on Monday. It was also his first game at Fenway Park, a rude introduction to a challenging right field full of distinct dimensions.
Vogt is no stranger to that nook, though. In 2019, when playing for the San Francisco Giants, Vogt lined a home run to that same spot — “off the very bottom of the pole,” he recalled.
“The wall, unless you’re used to running at a wall like that — it’s a low wall with weird angles — it’s hard,” Vogt said. “You’re running full speed. It’s hard to ask somebody to run full speed at that wall right there. He got the ball into his glove. It just didn’t go our way.”
Vogt’s home run six years ago traveled 307 feet which, since Story’s traveled 306 feet, now ranks as the third-shortest over-the-wall home run of the Statcast Era (since 2015), according to MLB research maven Sarah Langs. Lorenzo Cain holds the record, at 302 feet (which Vogt remembered).
“That’s what this park does,” Vogt said. “You see some weird plays.”
(Photo: Brian Fluharty / Getty Images)