Xander Bogaerts, Trevor Story out of Red Sox’s lineup Thursday

The Boston Red Sox are scorching hot right now, winners of their past seven games. They will go for eight in a row tonight against Shohei Ohtani and the Angels. But the Sox will take the field without shortstop Xander Bogaerts and second baseman Trevor Story. Both are missing from the starting lineup.

Bogaerts left Tuesday’s game in the ninth inning due to some shoulder tightness, but he returned Wednesday and played the entire game. This appears to be just a rest day for Story, who has played in all but one game since late April.

Bogaerts, who can opt out of his contract at the end of the season, is having a fabulous year. He’s batting .319 with a .386 on-base percentage and a 142 OPS+.

Story’s cold start to ‘22 is a distant memory now. Since May 16, he has an OPS better than 1.000 with eight homers and 26 RBIs in 22 games. Story has five extra-base hits, five runs and four RBIs in seven games this month.