Jarren Duran's inside-the-park homer powers Red Sox past Pirates in finale

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Aug 31, 2025

Published in Baseball

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BOSTON — The Red Sox have had a hard time scoring recently, and Jarren Duran’s struggles have been among the reasons why. Entering Sunday the outfielder was batting .205 over the past two weeks, a stretch where he’s primarily batted third.

Fortunately, as manager Alex Cora often says, speed doesn’t slump.

Duran broke out in a big way Sunday, hitting a three-run inside-the-park home run to help power the Red Sox to a 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was the first inside-the-parker of his big league career and helped the Red Sox avoid what would have been a disappointing three-game sweep at home.

Overall Duran reached base all four times he came to the plate, going 2 for 2 with a double and the homer along with two walks.

With two men on and the game tied at 1-1 in the bottom of the fifth, Duran roped a hard line drive into the right-center gap, which rolled into the triangle between center fielder Oneil Cruz and right fielder Alexander Canario. The two struggled to corral the ball, which bounced around in the corner, and by the time Cruz got the ball into the infield Duran was well on his way home.

Duran beat the throw by so much that he was able to slow down as he crossed the plate standing up, celebrating arguably the only speed-related in-game accomplishment that previously eluded him in his career.

The home run came after the Pirates initially took the lead on a wild pitch by Lucas Giolito in the fourth, and after the Red Sox initially rallied in the fifth to tie the score. Romy Gonzalez reached on a leadoff error by the second baseman, Carlos Narvaez hit a ground rule double to put men at second and third with one out, and Roman Anthony drove in Gonzalez on a groundout to make it 1-1.

Alex Bregman was then hit by a pitch to put two men on again for Duran, who lined Pirates starter Mitch Keller’s first-pitch fastball to the gap for Boston’s second inside-the-park homer of the season.

The first came courtesy of Wilyer Abreu, who rounded the bases on June 30 against the Cincinnati Reds. According to the club, 2025 is now the first season with multiple inside-the-park homers since 1998, when Darren Lewis and Nomar Garciaparra both accomplished the feat.

While the bats finally got going, Giolito made sure he held up his end of the bargain.

The Red Sox starter had another strong outing, allowing one run over six innings of work. Giolito’s command wasn’t dialed in — he walked five batters, including three in a row plus a wild pitch to score a run in the fourth — but he limited the Pirates to just three hits while striking out six.

It was Giolito’s 14th quality start in 22 outings this season, and marked his sixth straight start at Fenway Park in which he’s allowed one or fewer runs over six innings of work.

The Red Sox extended their lead in the sixth on an RBI infield single by Ceddanne Rafaela, and while the Pirates were able to get a run back in the seventh on a solo shot by Canario off Justin Slaten, they couldn’t get any closer. Pittsburgh threatened in the eighth when they loaded the bases against Garrett Whitlock, but the Red Sox righty struck out Canario to end the inning.

From there it was Aroldis Chapman’s game, and the All-Star closer locked down his former club in the ninth for his 27th save of the season.

While the Red Sox lost the series, they’ll go into the new week no worse than 1 1/2 games back of the New York Yankees for the top American League wild-card spot and 3 1/2 games back of the Toronto Blue Jays for first in the AL East standings.

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