KANSAS CITY -- The way things have gone lately for the Red Sox on offense, Jarren Duran wasn’t above a little praying when it came right down to it in the top of the ninth inning on Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium.
Once again, Boston was in a tightly fought game -- and was in danger of scoring three runs or fewer in 10 straight games, something the club hadn’t done since 1955.
As Duran clocked one high and deep to right, the only question was if the ball would stay fair or not. Fair, it was, as it curled inside the foul pole for a game-breaking three-run homer that lifted the Red Sox to a 7-1 victory over the Royals.
Duran gave it a long lean, in such suspense that he was later annoyed with himself for not running out of the box.
“There were a lot of prayers going into that lean,” Duran said. “I knew I hit it good. I should have been on third before that ball landed. I kind of yelled at myself internally. But I'm just happy I was able to put good spin on the ball and hit a homer.”
One of several Boston hitters who has slumped for most of the season, Duran has shown signs of a better approach in the first five games of this road trip, drawing five walks -- including two in the first two innings on Tuesday.
As the old adage goes, sometimes you need to walk before you can run.
“Don’t jinx me -- I wish I could say yes,” said Duran, when asked if he felt his approach was improving. “But it's baseball, and every single day I come in here, I’ve gotta find the swing again. So maybe I won't take any swings tomorrow, and I'll just roll with what I had tonight. It's always good when I can see the ball like I did today, and get on base for the big guys behind me.”
Given how athletic Duran is, and the fact he’s leading off, a turnaround from him could have a significant impact on the entire lineup.
“I think when he gets going, sky's the limit for this team,” said Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who had three of Boston’s 15 hits. “I think just seeing him hit the ball, drive the ball all over the field and do what he's doing -- if he can keep this up, who knows where we can be in a month or two?”
Duran’s imprint was all over this game. Aside from getting on base four times and stealing a base, he made two highlight-reel catches, including one in the bottom of the sixth that might have been the biggest play of the game.
With two outs in the bottom of the sixth and a runner on third, Salvador Perez belted a Statcast-projected 364-foot lineout to left.
Duran raced back, nearly got blinded by the lights, stretched out his glove fully and made a tremendous leaping catch to hold a 2-1 lead.
“He backspun it so good, and then there's lights right above my face,” Duran said. “I just had to kind of blink right as the ball went into the lights and then make a play. That was a good one, to make that play for [Zack] Kelly.”
Kelly raised his arms in triumph.
“That play saved the game right there,” said Kelly.
Though it wasn’t in as high-leverage of a situation, Duran also raced in and made a diving shoestring catch on a looping liner by Nick Loftin for the second out of the second inning. The catch probability on the play, per Statcast, was 30 percent.
“I’m just trying to play some good defense for my pitchers,” said Duran. “I always hold my hat on that. If my bat's not gonna be there, I want to make sure I'm playing good defense, so that was probably one of the [most fun] parts of the night.”
While the starting rotation has carried the load for the Red Sox of late, the pitching was anchored in this one by a bullpen that got 14 big outs on a night when lefty Ranger Suarez didn’t have his best stuff.
By taking the first two games in Kansas City, Boston snapped a string of three straight series losses.
And despite a 21-27 record, the Red Sox are just two games back in the AL Wild Card standings.
“Offensively, we should not be still in the Wild Card, as bad as we've been hitting,” said Kiner-Falefa. “But it feels like everything's starting to turn a little bit, and our pitching is doing a great job of keeping us in it. We need to do a better job offensively, and we're starting to show life. If we can just keep that up, watch out. But we need to keep going. It’s just one series, so we gotta keep going.”