Jarren Duran homers late, Connor Wong drives in three as Red Sox bury Guardians

The biggest boom of the day wasn’t the meteor that rattled parts of New England. It was the Red Sox bats. Boston unloaded on Cleveland for nine runs and 11 hits Saturday afternoon, cruising to a 9-1 victory over the Guardians at Progressive Field.

The bottom of Boston’s lineup fueled much of the offensive outburst. Connor Wong collected two hits and drove in three runs from the No. 8 spot, while Caleb Durbin went 2-for-4 with two RBIs.

The Red Sox then blew the game open against Cleveland’s bullpen, tagging reliever Will Dion for six runs in the ninth inning. Wong delivered a two-run single before Jarren Duran launched his eighth home run of May, a three-run blast that put the game completely out of reach.

It was Duran's eighth home run in the month of May as he continues to swing a hot bat from the top of the lineup. 

The victory improved Boston to 6-24 in games when its opponent scores first and moved the Red Sox back to nine games under .500 after falling 10 games below the mark Friday night.

Wong nearly ended another drought in the sixth inning.

The catcher appeared to snap his 91-game home run drought when he drove a ball deep off reliever Matt Festa. Initially ruled a two-run homer, replay review showed the ball struck the top of the wall and bounced back into play. The call was overturned to an RBI double that scored Marcelo Mayer and gave Boston a 2-1 lead.

It was still a productive afternoon for Wong, who recorded his third three-RBI game over the last two seasons.

“(I thought) it was a homer,” Wong echoed. “Wish I could challenge it myself, but it is what it is. We got the win. We’re good.”

The Red Sox had opportunities to do even more damage against Cleveland left-hander Parker Messick.

Boston went just 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position against the rookie and stranded six runners during his five innings of work.

Nick Sogard found himself at the center of two missed opportunities. He popped out with two runners in scoring position in the first inning and later grounded out with the bases loaded in the third.

The Red Sox finally broke through in the fourth using a little small ball.

Andruw Monasterio doubled and Isiah Kiner-Falefa followed with an infield single to open the inning. Wong then laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Monasterio to third before Durbin lifted a sacrifice fly to left field, tying the game at 1-1 and collecting his first RBI of the afternoon.

To provide some breathing room, Durbin continued a recent trend of driving the ball the other way.

Facing right-hander Shawn Armstrong with a runner on second in the eighth inning, Durbin lined a double into the opposite-field gap to score an insurance run and extend Boston’s lead to 3-1.

Messick repeatedly worked through traffic but managed to limit the damage. The Cleveland starter needed 93 pitches to complete five innings.

The Red Sox put the game away with a six-run ninth inning.

Wilyer Abreu sparked the rally with a leadoff walk before Willson Contreras was hit by a pitch. Mayer then reached on a fielder’s choice, and Masataka Yoshida drew a bases-loaded walk to force home Boston’s fourth run of the afternoon.

Two batters later, Wong delivered the big blow, ripping a two-run double into the left-center field gap to extend the lead. Duran followed immediately after, launching a three-run line-drive homer to right field to cap the outburst and blow the game open at 9-1.

What had been a tense one-run game for much of the afternoon quickly turned into Boston’s most lopsided victory in weeks.

Meanwhile, Sonny Gray turned in another strong outing.

The veteran right-hander allowed