The Red Sox are 15-5 since June 14, dropping just one of their last seven series on their way to becoming legitimate contenders in the American League wild-card race.
It could soon be time for some playoff baseball in Boston.
It’ll take sustained success for that to become a reality, but at this point, the Red Sox currently look as capable as they have at any point in the last several seasons. It didn’t really come out of nowhere, but many have probably been wondering what changed to get them to that point.
Jarren Duran is what changed.
Duran has been the catalyst of Boston’s on-field success, but he also helped turn things around with a locker room speech following the club’s series-opening loss to the Yankees on June 14.
“We came here and the Yankees beat us so comfortably in the first game,” Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen said in an appearance on the “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast Wednesday. “I remember, Jarren’s like ‘Come on boys, don’t worry about it. We got two more, (expletive) em.’ Jarren said that in the clubhouse, and that’s what I like. I like the fire from the young guys. You gotta let them be open and do it, be their own leader — that’s how you become a leader to a team.”
Jansen clearly was motivated by the speech, calling his own number the next day to capture his first multi-inning save of the season.
“I’m like, ‘Alright, let’s see how we react tomorrow.’ We came with fire, that brought the fire out of me getting the phone call,” Jansen said. “I wanted to be in that game, to pitch multiple innings. We went on a roll. We went to Toronto and didn’t take it for granted. We played, we played, we played. I feel like the minute the young guys really start believing in themselves and believe we can compete against anybody, it becomes scary.”
The Red Sox, indeed, have become scary.
It remains to be seen if they can carry that momentum past the 2024 MLB All-Star break, but given what we’ve seen since Duran’s speech, it looks like they’ll be just fine.
