The Boston Red Sox are getting valuable contributions from young outfielder Jarren Duran, who hasn't stopped hitting since being recalled from Triple-A Worcester.
Duran added to his growing resume on Tuesday night against the Baltimore Orioles by hitting his first career grand slam. It came in the third inning off of Kyle Bradish. The pitch was a 93 mph fastball that was center-cut. The ball was demolished out to dead center field. You can see the highlight below:
Duran's offensive turnaround has been a very welcome development for the Sox. He was brought up in both 2021 and 2022 but really struggled to gain any traction at the big league level. He just hit .215 and .221 in those seasons while playing 33 and 58 games, respectively.
There were also questions about his effort, his comments to the media after a win over the Astros and his general commitment, but he appears to have come back with a good attitude, work ethic and confidence.
Thus far for the Sox, he's hitting .379 with the home run, 10 RBI, two stolen bases and a 1.067 OPS in 29 at-bats.
Popular Red Sox podcast host Steve Perrault had more context to his hot start:
"Jarren Duran has 6 extra-base hits in 9 games played this season with 10 RBI and a .379 batting average. He's also still the fastest kid alive."
The Red Sox are currently leading the Orioles, 7-0, at the time of this posting. The two teams will wrap up the series tomorrow afternoon at 1:05 p.m.
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