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Jarren Duran helps Red Sox reverse scary early-season trend, ‘breathe’ with big swing
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- Jarren Duran helps Red Sox reverse scary early-season trend, ‘breathe’ with big swing
BOSTON — With one swing of the bat Friday, Jarren Duran helped the Red Sox — at least for one night — flip the script on a trend that has defined their underwhelming season so far.
Duran’s third-inning three-run homer off Astros starter Mike Burrows flipped a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead that would serve as the final score in the series opener between Boston and Houston . The Red Sox entered the game with a putrid 1-13 record in which their opponent scored first. It was just Boston’s third come-from-behind victory of 2026.
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“A good team win,” said interim manager Chad Tracy, who won his Fenway debut.
In the first 31 games of the season, the Red Sox had been wholly unable to rebound from an early deficit. Outside of April 10, when the Red Sox came back from a 1-0 deficit in St. Louis , the club had lost every game in which they didn’t score first. In 2025, the Red Sox won 35% of games in which they originally trailed (28-51).
Friday’s scoring opened when Carlos Correa hit a no-doubt solo homer off lefty Jake Bennett in what would serve as the only blemish in the southpaw’s major league debut. A half-inning later, the scuffling Duran hit his second homer of the year, clearing the bullpens in right field. Boston’s dugout was able to breathe.
“You could feel it in the dugout, like, ‘Whew, there’s a 3-1 lead,’” Tracy said. “I think that was the difference the first two games in Baltimore and Toronto . We played with some leads. To get that swing there, especially after we had fallen behind, everyone kind of breathed.”
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Facing Burrows, the Red Sox used a patient approach to get things going in the third. Catcher Carlos Narváez worked an 11-pitch walk — “You’ve got to tip your cap,” Duran said — before Caleb Durbin hit an 0-2 single to put runners on the corners for Duran. Duran got a hanging curveball from Burrows and sent it 407 feet into the seats.
“It’s always nice to put a good swing on the ball,” Duran said. “I was just looking to get the job done there, bringing the runner from third to tie the game and get us going a little bit. I just happened to run into the homer.”
For Duran, the swing was long overdue. The 29-year-old has struggled at the plate all year and entered the game hitting .170 with five doubles, a homer, 28 strikeouts and a .481 OPS in 108 plate appearances. On his homer, Duran displayed an exaggerated leg kick that he has added and subtracted numerous times during his career. It worked.
“A lot goes into it,” Duran said. “The toe-tap has always been something that keeps me in my legs and when I was first originally went from the toe-tap to the leg-kick, it keeps me in my legs. I’m just mixing that into the routine every day to make sure I’m staying consistent.
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Added Tracy: “He knows what he’s doing and he’s gonna get himself going. I think he took some other good swings tonight, too.”
For Duran, who has declined to comment on the jarring news that the Red Sox fired Alex Cora and six of his coaches last weekend , the focus has remained between the lines. After years of tinkering with his swing in the batting cage with hitting coach Pete Fatse, assistant Dillon Lawson and strategy coach Joe Cronin, Duran finds himself working with a new trio of John Soteropulos and minor league call-ups Collin Hetzler and Nelson Paulino. Duran was also particularly close with outfield/third base coach Kyle Hudson.
“You’ve just got to keep your head down and keep working,” Duran said. “I know my routine and I know these guys know my routine. We get to work with them in spring training, so there’s nothing different, nothing new.”
Duran, who played 79 combined games for Tracy at Triple-A in 2022 and 2023, lavished the interim manager with praise after the game and said he was happy to enjoy Tracy’s first Fenway win alongside him . Duran is also happy to be back in the leadoff spot, something he did just four times in 26 games before Cora’s firing and has now done four times in Tracy’s first five games.
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“I’ve always loved leading off and it kinda helps me knowing they trust me up there,” Duran said. “That’s always a bonus to know they trust me up there to get the team going. I’m very appreciative.”
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