The Red Sox won in walk-off fashion Sunday night, but the game-winning run wasn’t plated by a majestic home run or a screaming line drive. A Tyler O’Neill flare into no man’s land in left field at Fenway Park was enough to get the job done in the series finale between Boston and Chicago. Dansby […]
The Red Sox won in walk-off fashion Sunday night, but the game-winning run wasn’t plated by a majestic home run or a screaming line drive.
A Tyler O’Neill flare into no man’s land in left field at Fenway Park was enough to get the job done in the series finale between Boston and Chicago. Dansby Swanson bolted into the outfield from shortstop to try and make a game-preserving grab, but the baseball bounced off his glove and allowed Jarren Duran to prance home from third base.
Duran is fortunate that Swansby didn’t make a highlight-reel catch. Boston’s center fielder didn’t tag up when O’Neill lifted the fly, instead opting to jockey between third and home while he waited to see where the ball landed.
After the Red Sox secured the weekend series win, Duran explained his mindset on the primetime contest’s final play.
“I had happy feet at third base,” Duran told reporters, per MassLive. “So I was like, ‘Tag? No tag? Tag? Don’t tag?’ But I was like, ‘I’ve got to stay off (the bag) because I’m probably not going to be able to tag on it.’ So I was just trying to stay off as far as possible to be able to score.”
Scoring the game-winning run wasn’t the only way Duran impacted the series finale. The 27-year-old also laced a two-run triple in the sixth inning, knocking in a pair of runs Boston proved to greatly need once Chris Martin unraveled in the eighth.
Duran and the Red Sox will enjoy an off day Monday before kicking off a three-game series with the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday. The opener very well could see the Boston debut of Vaughn Grissom, who’s in line to add more athleticism to the club’s lineup.
