BOSTON — With the Red Sox not only slumping at the plate through the first four innings on Sunday but for the last couple of weeks, Jarren Duran took matters into his own hands and legs with one electrifying moment that changed everything at Fenway Park.
With two on and two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning, Duran smashed a line drive headed to the biggest part of the ballpark, the triangle area in right-center.
Pirates right fielder Alexander Canario tried to cut it off on the grass before it could reach dirt, but to no avail. Center fielder Oneil Cruz tried to pick it out cleanly from the base of Boston’s bullpen wall, only to have it skip by him. Duran was off to the races.
His three-run gapper was a thing of beauty, turning a 1-1 tie into a 4-1 edge for the Red Sox. It ended up being the difference in Boston’s 5-2 win to snap a five-game home losing streak.
While completing his first career inside-the-park homer, Duran didn’t so much as slide as he crossed home, even though teammate Carlos Narváez was instructing him to.
“Narvy was giving me the slide [signal]. I was like, ‘This is going to be more of a fall than a slide.’ Then I saw the catcher [set up away from the plate] and I’m like, ‘Thank you, I’m standing up.’” said Duran. “I feel like we’ve been hitting the ball so hard at people and just lining out, so I just let out a bunch of energy just seeing we caught a break a little bit there.”
It was one of those moments that turned a dugout full of baseball players and coaches into fans.
“Everybody’s loud, everybody’s sending him,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “And I’m glad that it worked out.”
Duran hauled around the base at a sprint speed of 29.3 feet per second, completing his 360-foot journey in 14.71 seconds, which is fastest among the seven inside-the-park homers in MLB this season. It was also the fastest among the four inside-the-park home runs by a Red Sox player in the Statcast era (since 2015).
“Yeah, we needed that,” said Cora. “I think offensively, the last week has been a grind. Some guys are slumping and we’re missing Wilyer [Abreu]. Big swing there, the ball got in the corner, and then he did his thing.”
The thing Duran did is one that few can duplicate. SInce the start of the ’24 season, Pete Crow Armstrong (14.08 seconds) and Corbin Carroll (14.32 seconds) are the only players who have circled the bases with more speed.
Duran was caught up in the moment as he crossed home.
“They are so rare,” Duran said. “When you see one it’s almost like that, ‘Oh crap’ moment. ‘This is going to happen.’ It’s such a rarity that it’s special for everybody.”
Starting pitcher Lucas Giolito was in the tunnel under the dugout by the batting cage when the moment of the game took place.
“It really fired me up,” said Giolito. “I told myself after that, ‘OK, it’s go-time now. They don’t get anything else.’’
For the Pirates, Duran’s game-breaking play took away their chance of what would have been a surprising three-game sweep at Fenway.
“I mean, he hit it well to the gap. It looked to me like it split both guys,” said Pirates manager Don Kelly. “With Fenway Park and the intricacies there in right-center, it went all the way [towards the 420-foot sign] and kicked off. Oneil couldn’t corral it right away. That’s a long way to throw from 420 and try to get somebody as fast as he is.”
Though the Pirates were hardly flawless in their execution on the play, it was redemption for Duran, who thought he had an inside-the-park homer on July 28, 2021, only to have an error called on Blue Jays center fielder George Springer.
“I should have two,” quipped Duran.
It was the second inside-the-parker for the Sox this season. Wilyer Abreu had one on June 30 against the Reds, adding a grand slam later that night for good measure.
Earlier this season, Duran had first career straight steal of home on April 26 at Cleveland. What did he like better: The steal of home or his tour de force around the bases?
“Probably this because I felt this was big for us, a good momentum shifter for us,” said Duran. “I felt like this was more fun.”
