Patience is a not a quality normally associated with Ezequiel Duran.
Among the Texas Rangers with at least 50 plate appearances this season, Durant is 14th in walk rate. In order words, he comes up there swinging.
But there’s one thing Duran does as good as anyone, and that’s battle. He certainly did in the monster at-bat Tuesday night that gave the Rangers the lead in an eventual 8-3 win over the Detroit Tigers.
Duran’s towering go-ahead solo home run in the eighth inning that gave Texas a 4-3 advantage came on the 12th pitch against Tigers reliever Brendan White.
“That was an impressive at-bat, wasn’t it? Fouled off some tough pitches, fastballs and breaking balls,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “Got one he could handle there and he smoked it.”
Duran’s marathon session featured five consecutive foul balls after initially getting to two strikes. White would run the count full and Duran would fight off another pitch before finally taking an 83-mph sweeper 431 feet to left.
“It was a little hard,” Duran said of the at-bat, according to MLB.com. “[I was thinking] keep fighting. Keep fighting, take a good pitch and hit it hard.”
The last time one of the Rangers homered that late in an at-bat was 12 years ago. Adrián Beltré did so on July 19, 2011 at the Los Angeles Angels, also the 12th pitch from Michael Kohn.
Duran’s career-high 10 homers this season are the most by a Rangers infielder in his age 24-or-younger season since Ronald Guzmán in 2019 (also 10). Duran went 2-for-4 against Detroit, and has multiple hits in three straight games, five of six and seven of his last nine. He’s hitting .432 (16-37) over that span.
The American League West-leading Rangers (48-31) and Tigers (34-44) continue their series Wednesday night with first pitch from Globe Life Field at 7:05 p.m. Dane Dunning (6-1, 2.76) goes for Texas opposite Joey Wentz (1-8, 6.72).
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You can follow Art Garcia on Twitter @ArtGarcia92.
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