BOSTON — The highlight of Wednesday night at Fenway Park was Jarren Duran blazing around the bases, and electrifying the Boston crowd with a Little League home run.
The home run song at Fenway went off, but it was scored as a triple along with an error on George Springer, the centerfielder. Springer attempted to pick it up bare-handed when it bounced off the wall, but he bobbled it, giving Duran the opportunity to score.
“Just hoping to get on three,” said Duran when asked what he was thinking when the ball left his bat “I knew Springer was playing more towards left-center so I was hoping it would get in the gap — hopefully score Plawecki from first base.”
Duran helped the Sox win game two of a seven-inning doubleheader, as his knock also scored Kevin Plawecki, who was on first base. Boston went on to win 4-1, as it ended up being a major insurance run.
“As soon as I got to third (Carlos Febles, the third base coach) started waving me, and I’m like, ‘I’m absolutely gassed,'” Duran said. “I was just hoping I could make it home without falling.”
The outfielder went 1-for-2 on the night, with his lone hit being the triple as he only got up to the plate twice with the game being seven innings. Duran was visibly pumped after scoring, as Fenway erupted with cheer in one of the more exciting plays at Fenway in recent history.
“I was pumped,” Duran recalled. “I felt like I just helped the team do something and it’s always amazing to contribute to this amazing offense. I was pumped — maybe a little too excited, but, you know, it happens.”
Duran was not in the lineup for Game 1 of the doubleheader but returned to the lineup Wednesday evening at No. 9 in the order. The 24-year-old wasn’t even aware of the call being a triple with an error instead of an inside-the-park home run at first.
“Oh yea, I heard about that. I mean, I’ll take the triple,” Duran said. “I guess my laundry cart ride doesn’t become official until I actually hit a real home run.”
Duran has hit just .172 (5-for-29) with one long ball through his first 10 games, as his spot in the lineup dwindled all the way down to No. 9 Wednesday after getting regular at-bats hitting second. The 24-year-old, who’s posted an OPS of just .598 so far, says the majors is both fun and hard, and that it’s the best in the world for a reason.
“It’s the best of the best for a reason,” Duran stated. “It’s fun, and it’s hard at the same time. It’s a mental toll, but it’s fun knowing that you get to come in each day and get better. And then you get to take it out into the game and see what you do, and if it doesn’t work, you go back to the drawing board and you keep working. It’s the process — baseball is a big process game — they adjust to me, and then I have to adjust to them. It’s just a big game of cat and mouse.”
(Photo By Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)