KANSAS CITY — Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran leaned back slightly as he watched the flight of his 366-foot drive to right field, willing it to stay fair.
“There’s a lot of prayers going into that lean,” Duran said. “I knew I hit it good.”
It stayed fair, landing for a three-run home run that gave Boston a five-run lead in the ninth inning. The Red Sox tacked on another run and won 7-1 over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday.
“I was like, ‘Please stay fair,’” interim manager Chad Tracy said. “When it left his bat, you felt like it was gone if it stays fair.”
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Duran did it all. He homered, doubled, walked twice, stole a base and made two highlight-reel catches.
“Just trying to play some good defense for my pitchers,” Duran said. “I always hold my hat on that. If my bat’s not going to be there, I always want to make sure I’m playing good defense. So that was probably one of the funner parts of the night, was playing good defense for my pitchers.”
Duran sprinted in to make a diving catch on Nick Loftin’s 276-foot, 95.8 mph lineout to left field in the second inning.
Duran also pedaled back and made a leaping catch on Salvador Perez’s 364-foot, 101.9 mph lineout to left field to end the fifth inning. It came with the potential tying run at third base, allowing the Red Sox to maintain a 2-1 lead.
“Two great defensive plays,” Tracy said. “We were very, very good defensively again tonight.”
Duran said the fifth-inning catch was the more difficult of the two plays.
“Probably the Salvy one because he backspins it so good and then there’s lights like right above my face,” Duran said. “So I just had to kind of blink right as the ball went into the lights and then make a play.”
Duran said he shouldn’t have stood there to watch whether his home run went fair or foul.
“I should have been on third before that ball landed,” Duran said. “I kind of yelled at myself internally. But I’m just happy I was able to put a good swing on the ball and hit a homer.”
Duran has struggled this season, batting .189 with a .262 on-base percentage, .331 slugging percentage and .593 OPS in 43 games (187 plate appearances). But he has walked four times in the past two games and five times on this road trip. Still, he’s not ready to say he’s in a good spot with his approach.
“I wish I could say yes, but it’s baseball and every single day I come in here, I gotta find the swing again,” Duran said. “I know a bunch of hitters are gonna relate to that, but it’s a daily grind to come in here and feel the good feels that you just felt the night before, especially having a night like this — to help find it again tomorrow. So maybe I won’t take any swings tomorrow and I’ll just roll with what I had tonight.”
He’s willing to do anything to make sure that momentum carries into Wednesday.
“If they let me, I probably would sleep here,” Duran joked.
