Jarren Duran’s 3-run blast leads surging Red Sox to sixth straight win over streaking Royals

The Red Sox are rolling.

Boston welcomed Kansas City into town on Monday night for the first of three with the streaking Royals, winners of four straight series and 9 of their last 13 games, and were 17-10 in their last 27 since the start of July. The Sox’ offense got to work early, attacking new Royals lefty Bailey Falter, tagging him for five runs in the first inning, which included a three-run blast off the bat of Jarren Duran, leading the Red Sox to an 8-5 win.

Rob Refsnyder broke the ice with a two-run single with the bases loaded before Duran bashed his 12th home run of the season, a 419-footer with an exit velocity of 109.9 mph over the center field wall.

“It feels good,” Duran said about getting the fans involved early in the game with his home run off Falter. “They’re a really good baseball team, and for us to jump on them like that early was a good feeling.”

Wilyer Abreu was a late addition to the Red Sox lineup after the Sox scratched rookie Roman Anthony minutes before the first pitch. Anthony was dealing with mid-back tightness. He was originally penciled into right field and was to bat third, but Alex Cora went with Abreu instead.

The 2024 Gold Glove winner went 2-for-3 with an RBI and walk in the win. He also made an excellent throw from the outfield to gun down Nick Loftin at the plate to end an explosive eighth inning for the Royals.

“Credit to Willy for having my back there and coming in and doing what he did,” Anthony said.

Kansas City entered the eighth down 8-1 and looked dead in the water until the Red Sox summoned reliever Jorge Alcala from the bullpen. The hard-throwing righty entered the game with tremendous success against the Royals, owning a 0.37 ERA in 20 career appearances.

Alcala was completely ineffective, giving up back-to-back blasts to Vinnie Pasquantino and Maikel Garcia, then a one-out double to Mike Yastrzemski. He’s been pitching poorly over the last week and was charged with three earned runs in an 1/3 of an inning. He’s now had four straight brutal outings and is a prime DFA candidate. Boston could add Nick Burdi, who just came off the IL and is currently with Triple-A Worcester.

Justin Wilson came in following Alcala and allowed two runs, where the Royals closed the gap to three runs. Bobby Witt Jr. singled to right field, and Loftin blew through his third base coaches’ stop sign and was thrown out easily after he was tagged by Connor Wong at the plate. The play was initially challenged because the Royals felt Wong was blocking the plate, but the call was upheld. Aroldis Chapman locked down his 21st save of the season with a perfect top of the ninth.

“Today was a very abnormal day but I’m glad that I was able to have a great game and we were able to win,” Abreu said.

Brayan Bello turned in another strong outing on the mound for the Sox. The righty allowed just one unearned run over six innings of work in front of a sellout crowd of 37,585 fans at Fenway Park. It was the ninth consecutive sellout for the Sox this season.

It didn’t come easy for Bello at times, but he was able to work out of jams all night. The right-handed hurler stranded a runner in scoring position in the second inning; he also escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the third and later drew an inning-ending double play to end the fifth.

Duran also made an outstanding leaping catch in front of the Green Monster in left field to end the fourth. The play saved a run and allowed Bello to work quickly out of the inning.

“We have a very solid defense behind me, the outfield, (Ceddanne) Rafaela, Abreu, and Duran—they’re amazing—and also the infield; they’re very solid, they’re great,” Bello said via a team interpreter. “So that gives me the confidence to throw strikes and try to get quick outs.”

Trevor Story remains perfect on the season in stolen base attempts. The veteran shortstop is now 19-for-19 and is one steal shy of tying the franchise record held by the late Julio Lugo. Story’s career high for steals is 27, which came back during his All-Star 2018 campaign.

Anthony won’t play on Tuesday but thinks his back issue is minor.

"Came out to the line, everything felt normal all day, and I felt something while I was stretching on the line, and I figured we'd be cautious with it. It was super uncomfortable. I relayed that quickly, and we decided we'd shut it down,” Anthony said to reporters after the game.

The Sox have two more games with the Royals before they head to San Diego for a weekend series with the Padres. Boston could hold Anthony out the next couple of games to let things calm down in his back before the big interleague series. “I’ll get with the training staff and figure that out, but I’m already definitely trending in the right direction and feeling better than it was earlier,” Anthony said.

The Red Sox are 12 games above .500 on the season and will turn to their ace, Garrett Crochet (12-4, 2.23 ERA), on Tuesday to help secure the series win. The Royals will counter with newcomer, right-hander Ryan Bergert (1-0, 2.78 ERA). The first pitch is at 7:10 p.m., and the game can be seen on NESN.