Sports

/

ArcaMax

Jarren Duran makes AL history as Red Sox roll past Marlins, 8-3

Gabrielle Starr, Boston Herald on

Published in Baseball

Jarren Duran made American League history in the Red Sox’s 8-3 victory over the Miami Marlins on Tuesday.

With his 10th home run of the season — blasted 433 feet at 107.5 mph with two outs in the top of the eighth — the Red Sox leadoff man became the first AL player ever to record 100 hits, 10 triples, 10 home runs and 20 stolen bases before the All-Star break. (José Reyes became the only National Leaguer to achieve the feat, in 2008.)

It’s Duran’s fifth home run in 10 games.

“He’s a very dangerous hitter right now,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters.

After a day off in Miami, the Red Sox got their July off on the right foot. Duran’s historic homer was one of 13 hits, eight runs and two round-trippers Boston collected in the series opener in Miami. Every member of the lineup collected at least one hit. Connor Wong extended his hitting streak to 16 games, tying Wally Schang (1919), Carlton Fisk (1977), and Jason Varitek (2002) for the fourth-longest streak by a catcher in franchise history. Masataka Yoshida had his first three-hit game since before going on the injured list in late April, and Rafael Devers and Tyler O’Neill collected two apiece.

“For how much we like South Beach and hanging out down here, sometimes you’re worried about coming from the off-day, after hanging out yesterday, and (being) sluggish, and that wasn’t the case,” Cora said. “They put some good at-bats, they ran the bases well, and we played some good defense.”

 

In his five-inning major league debut the week prior, Marlins starter Valente Bellozo shut out the Kansas City Royals, holding a potent lineup to two hits, zero walks and two strikeouts. The right-hander, 24, wouldn’t fare so well against the Red Sox. Again he went five innings, but this time, he got knocked around to the tune of five earned runs on seven hits, one walk and eight strikeouts. Boston took a 2-0 lead on four hits in the first. With one out, O’Neill singled, Wilyer Abreu doubled and Devers singled to score them both.

“I think it’s good, it’s good to get us going. It’s good always to jump in front,” Ceddanne Rafaela told NESN’s Jahmai Webster of the early advantage.

But then Bellozo settled in. Beginning with a strikeout against Enmanuel Valdez to strand two in the first, he struck out six of the next eight batters, including getting Abreu, Devers and Wong swinging 1-2-3 in the third. Suddenly befuddled by a largely unremarkable pitching arsenal, the Red Sox entered the fourth having already struck out seven times and leaving three men on, including Duran, who’d drawn a two-out walk and stolen his 21st base in the second.

In the fourth, the pendulum swung back in Boston’s favor. Yoshida led off with a single, and Valdez followed suit. With one out — Dom Smith popped out — Rafaela worked a seven-pitch at-bat for a towering three-run homer.

...continued

swipe to next page

©2024 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at bostonherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus