BOSTON — Another deep fly ball to center field, and this time Jarren Duran saw it the whole way. He watched it off the bat, followed it through the night sky, and celebrated when it landed in the seats 434 feet away. If this was to be a statement game for the Red Sox, who better to deliver the game-tying home run than the player who last year came to symbolize their second-half struggles and collapse?
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The Blue Jays were the Red Sox’s nemesis last season. Their matchups were often hopeless. Demoralizing, even. Against everyone else, the 2022 Red Sox were very nearly a playoff team. Against the Blue Jays, they were a last-place team without a prayer.
But the Red Sox think they’re better this year. And they certainly were on Monday night.
Down early and having blown a lead late, the Red Sox punched back three times: a home run to tie it, a home run to take the lead, and a walk-off home run to win it. Alex Verdugo, of course, delivered the final blow, his third walk-off RBI of the season for a 6-5 win in the Blue Jays series opener at Fenway Park.
It was the Red Sox’s major-league-leading 11th come-from-behind win of the season, and it pulled them out of last place in the American League East for the first time in three weeks. In any other American League division, their 16-14 record would be good enough for second place, but the East is loaded, and to stay competitive, the Red Sox are going to have to deal with that better than they did a year ago.
“We didn’t do it often last year,” manager Alex Cora said. “We struggled offensively, we did. For who we were, we felt like we struggled. Now, you can see the at-bats. We’re putting pressure on the starters. … We did what we usually do, just keep putting pressure on the opposition, and it’s fun to watch.”
Duran had two hits including a game-tying home run in the sixth inning, and he roared as he rounded the bases. It was Duran’s seventh multi-hit game since being recalled from Triple A two weeks ago. He’s hitting .404. He’s playing solid defense in center field. He’s making the Red Sox better. And better is what they need. Especially in this division. Especially against the Blue Jays.
The Red Sox went 3-16 against the Blue Jays last season. Against everyone else, they were 75-68, an 85-win pace that would have missed the playoffs by one game. Not great, but not dreadful. The Red Sox saved dreadful for the Jays.
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All of the American League East gave them trouble, but head-to-head, the Blue Jays outscored them by 70 runs. The 2022 Red Sox’s second-half tailspin could be traced back to a late-June series in Toronto, and their most embarrassing moment was surely the 28-5 Blue Jays thumping at Fenway Park where Duran struck out three times and lost a routine fly ball in the twilight, letting it fall behind him for an inside-the-park grand slam.
“It’s the most helpless feeling you could ever feel,” Duran said that day.
What he felt on Monday was the opposite of that. With the Red Sox down 3-2 in the sixth, he hammered a first-pitch breaking ball, 109.1 mph off the bat to deep center field. He said he’d felt himself trying to do too much earlier in the game, but he was able to make an adjustment in the heat of the moment, steadying himself for a pivotal at-bat. He might not have done that a year ago.
“I think it just comes with playing baseball at this level,” Duran said. “You get more exposure to moments like that, and you just learn to settle in and relax and be like, ‘OK, I’ve done this hundreds of times. It’s just another at-bat.’ Try not to overthink it and keep it simple.”
Two batters later, rookie call-up Enmanuel Valdez hit the first big-league home run of his career to put the Red Sox in front 5-3. And when a couple of Kiké Hernández throwing errors at shortstop let the Blue Jays tie the game in the eighth, Verdugo delivered in the ninth. It was his sixth walk-off RBI in three-plus seasons with the Red Sox, breaking a tie with Kevin Youkilis for the second most Red Sox walk-offs since 2000 (behind David Ortiz, of course).
“I live for it, bro,” Verdugo said. “I live for that moment. Everybody kind of gets in there and some people think about the negative results of it. Some people think like, you know, if I get out, if I don’t do this, like, it’s all on me. I’m blessed with that opportunity to do it. You don’t go up there thinking about failure. You go up there and I have a chance to help the team to win a ballgame, and I thrive (in) that moment.”
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Verdugo said he remembered what the Blue Jays did to the Red Sox last season. He remembered “a lot of blowouts, a lot of uncompetitive games.” Frankly, they’d be hard to forget. There were just so many of them. Verdugo had a .544 OPS against the Blue Jays last season (he hit better against 15 of 19 other teams the Sox played last season). Josh Winckowski, who got the win with two good innings of relief on Monday, had a 14.29 ERA against the Blue Jays last season (worst of any team he faced).
The American League East is tough this season. It might be historically good. The Red Sox have so far been swept by the first-place Rays, but they’ve split six games against the second-place Orioles, and now they’ve won their first one against the third-place Blue Jays.
“It’s always good to beat a really good team,” Duran said. “They’re a really good team.
“And we’re a really good team, too.”
(Photo of Verdugo after his game-winning hit: Winslow Townson / Getty Images)
