Jarren Duran homers again as Red Sox rally to beat Guardians 9-4

The Red Sox made a habit of breaking games open late against the Guardians during this series.

For the second straight day, Boston erupted for six runs in the seventh inning, turning a one-run deficit into a 9-4 victory over Cleveland on Sunday afternoon.

Trailing 4-3 entering the seventh, the Red Sox offense came alive against two of the Guardians’ top relievers, Colin Holderman and Tim Herrin. Remarkably, all six runs scored in the inning came with two outs.

The rally began with Connor Wong drawing a one-out walk, followed by a Carlos Narváez single and a Jarren Duran walk to load the bases. With two outs, Wilyer Abreu worked a walk to tie the game at 4-4.

Boston benefited from the rules surrounding MLB’s Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system during the pivotal at-bat. On a full count, Herrin appeared to catch the edge of the strike zone with a pitch to Abreu, but it was called ball four. Replay showed the pitch likely clipped the zone, but the Guardians had already exhausted their unsuccessful challenges earlier in the game, leaving them unable to appeal the call.

As a result, Wong trotted home with the tying run. Had the pitch been ruled strike three, the inning would have ended and the rally never would have materialized.

Instead, the Red Sox kept the line moving.

The next batter, Masataka Yoshida, delivered a clutch RBI single to put Boston in front. 

Cleveland then turned to Codi Heuer out of the bullpen, but the damage only continued. Isiah Kiner-Falefa jumped on the first pitch he saw and lined an RBI single to make it 7-4 before Caleb Durbin ripped his first career triple, driving in two more runs and putting the game out of reach.

For Yoshida, the go-ahead hit served as redemption after a difficult defensive moment earlier in the afternoon.

After the Red Sox reclaimed a 3-2 lead in the fifth inning, José Ramírez lifted what appeared to be a routine fly ball to left field. Yoshida seemed to lose track of it completely as the ball dropped several feet behind him. Ramírez raced into second with a game-tying RBI double, a play that briefly swung momentum back in Cleveland’s favor.

“It’s tough, ‘cuz you can’t catch what you can’t see,” Chad Tracy said of Yoshida’s misplay. “It stinks, but it happens.”

While the offense stole the spotlight late, Ranger Suárez turned in one of his more uneven outings of the season.

The left-hander matched his season-high with 10 strikeouts but labored through five innings, twice loading the bases and surrendering the lead on multiple occasions. Suárez allowed four earned runs on eight hits while walking two and throwing 93 pitches, 58 for strikes.

“I think the last couple I’ve just been battling, battling with each pitch, battling with each inning,” Suarez told reporters via translator. “I mean, 10 strikeouts is good, but four runs, I’d rather prevent the runs from coming in.”

Despite the rocky performance, it marked just the sixth time in Boston’s last 28 games, dating back to April 25, that a Red Sox starter has allowed more than three earned runs.

Suárez retired the side in order in the first inning, but it proved to be his only clean frame of the afternoon.

Cleveland grabbed a 2-1 lead in the second after Rhys Hoskins opened the inning with a walk, David Fry doubled, and Kyle Manzardo was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs. Austin Hedges capitalized with a two-run single before Brayan Rocchio grounded into an inning-ending double play. 

Hedges entered the game with an .823 OPS against left-handed pitching and finished with two more RBI, giving him six on the season.

Duran continued to pace Boston’s offense, launching his 10th home run of the season. Nine of those home runs have come during the month of May, the most by a Red Sox player in a calendar month since Rafael Devers hit 10 in April 2023.

Guardians starter Tanner Bibee allowed three runs on six hits over six innings while striking out five and walking one. Duran’s leadoff blast was Bibee’s MLB-leading fourth leadoff home run allowed this season and his third surrendered over his last five starts. After the rough opening, however, Bibee settled in and retired nine of the next 10 hitters he faced.

The Red Sox bullpen ensured Cleveland never mounted a comeback.

Jovani Morán, Tyron Guerrero, and Greg Weissert combined for three scoreless innings before Aroldis Chapman took the ball in the ninth. Boston planned to use the veteran closer regardless of the score, as he had not pitched since May 20.

Cameron DeLauter singled with one out, but Chapman responded by striking out Hoskins and Fry to seal the victory and secure the series win.

The Red Sox finished May with a 13-14 record, a slight improvement from their 11-15 mark in April, and enter June at 25-33 overall.

Boston is off on Monday before beginning a stretch of nine consecutive division games. The homestand opens Tuesday with a three-game series against Baltimore at Fenway Park before the club heads back on the road next weekend.

Probable Pitching Matchups:

Tuesday, 6:45 p.m. ET: Shane Baz (2-5, 4.48 ERA) vs. Connelly Early (5-2, 2.95 ERA)

Wednesday, 6:45 p.m. ET: Chris Bassitt (4-3, 5.06 ERA) vs. Payton Tolle (2-2, 2.61 ERA)

Thursday, 1:35 p.m. ET: Trevor Rogers (2-6, 6.84 ERA) vs. TBD (Brayan Bello or an opener ahead of him)

Garrett Crochet Setback

Before Sunday’s series-clinching win over Cleveland, the Red Sox received some concerning news regarding ace Garrett Crochet’s recovery timeline.

Crochet revealed that he recently experienced a setback in his rehab and will not throw the live batting practice session that had been scheduled for Tuesday. The left-hander is dealing with tightness in his lat area and will undergo additional testing, including what is expected to be an MRI, to determine the severity of the issue.

While neither Crochet nor the Red Sox appeared ready to speculate on the significance of the setback, the development puts his return timetable on hold for the time being. The club will wait for the results of the imaging before determining the next steps in his recovery process.

“Last day of the homestand, I just felt a little stretch, on a throw, in the lat,” Crochet said Sunday. “Just informed the trainers and figured it was best to not throw for a couple days. Going to get some imaging on it just to make sure we have the full picture.

“It feels like a very minor setback. It sucks to even call it a setback because it doesn’t feel like it even deserves that title. But I won’t be making the live on Tuesday, which sucks.”

Crochet, who has been sidelined since April 25 with shoulder fatigue, had been making steady progress in his recovery. The left-hander reached an important milestone last Tuesday when he faced teammates in a one-inning simulated game at Fenway Park, and the expectation was for him to build on that progress with a multi-inning live batting practice session this coming Tuesday.

However, those plans have now been put on hold.

According to Crochet, he has been dealing with lingering discomfort since late last week and has been unable to throw without feeling the issue in his lat area. The setback prompted the Red Sox to cancel his scheduled live session and pursue additional testing to determine the cause of the discomfort before allowing him to resume throwing.

“The last couple days, it has really lingered,” said Tracy. “We were hoping it was just soreness but he’s throwing and it’s still there. It is improving, but for right now, we’re backing off that until he sees docs and gets back home.”

Crochet appeared to be trending toward a return after working through a slower-than-expected progression that included several weeks of catch play and bullpen sessions. While the buildup was more deliberate than initially anticipated, the left-hander had recently cleared important checkpoints and seemed to be gaining momentum in his recovery before the latest setback put those plans on hold.

“It’s tough,” Crochet said. “I still feel like I was still a little far off from a rehab start, so it was very, very early in the build-up process. That’s a pretty vulnerable time for the arm, in general, during the build-up process. If it was gonna happen at some point, I would expect it to happen right around now.”

It's not clear when Crochet will return which could put the month of June in question for the southpaw. 

“I wouldn’t even venture to answer that with the whole ‘timetables’ thing and where that goes,” Tracy said when asked about Crochet’s return timetable. “Obviously, he’s not going to throw his live (session) on Tuesday so that’s going to push it back some. But how long? We’ll see how he feels and how the docs say and how quickly it resolves.

“Just trying to make sure that when I do return to play, I’m there for the rest of the year.”