‘It was stressful, to be honest’: Jarren Duran delivers with 11th-inning grand slam to lift Red Sox over Marlins – The Boston Globe
“It felt like somebody was going to have to get a two-run swing for something. We got a four-run swing.”
With Wilyer Abreu the automatic runner on second, Willson Contreras singled off Cade Gibson. Tracy then pinch hit for Mickey Gasper, who had homered twice and walked twice, with Jahmai Jones. He walked to load the bases.
Andruw Monasterio grounded into a force at the plate. Duran, who was 0 for 4, came to the plate and drilled a breaking ball 412 feet to right-center for his second career slam.
It was only his second home run in 112 at-bats against a lefthanded pitcher this season.
“Just trying to get a good pitch to hit,” Duran said. “It was stressful, to be honest. I feel like this is just the character that we’ve shown all year.”
Alec Gamboa, the sixth Red Sox pitcher, recorded four outs for the victory.
At 73-59, the Sox are a season-high 14 games over .500. They have won five straight, seven of eight, and nine of 11, and now trail the Yankees by 1½ games for the top wild-card spot in the American League.
The Sox can sweep the series on Wednesday night with Sonny Gray facing righthander Ryan Gusto. Then comes a four-game showdown series in New York.
Until the extra-inning drama, it was the Gasper Show.
He hit his first home run in the second inning off Tyler Phillips, driving a sinker 394 feet to right-center field. The ball landed on a berm of artificial grass to the delight of the many Sox fans in the crowd of 16,821 at loanDepot park.
That run looked like it might hold up for a bit as Red Sox starter Payton Tolle carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning. But Xavier Edwards led off with a ground-rule double to right field.
Edwards was thrown out trying to advance to third on a ground ball up the middle by Leo Jiménez. Griffin Conine singled and Esteury Ruiz walked to load the bases.
No. 9 hitter Brian Navarreto fouled off four two-strike pitches before delivering a game-tying sacrifice fly to center field. Tolle got ahead 0 and 2 but could not put the light-hitting backup catcher away.
Gasper homered in the sixth inning, this time to dead center field off Tyler Zuber. He has reached base eight consecutive times in the series with four hits and four walks to go along with three RBIs and two runs.
Heriberto Hernández led off the bottom of the inning with a game-tying 403-foot shot off Tolle to left that soared into the bleachers.
The extra innings were a mess.
Wong was at third with one out in the 10th when the pitch from Calvin Faucher ticked off the glove of Navarreto and hit the facemask of umpire David Rackley. The ball went to the backstop, and Wong scored easily.
Then the Sox were victim of a similar play in the bottom of the inning.
With two outs, Navarreto scored from third base on a wild pitch from rookie Wyatt Olds as Javier Sanoja struck out swinging. The curveball was well inside and low to Sanoja and got past Wong.
“It was really nasty,” Wong said. “It was a tough pitch to catch.”
The Sox are 63-42 under Tracy. He’s come to expect this group of players will find a way to win games that veer off in different directions.
“They’ve been doing that for a while now. It’s almost become — at least for them, for us — almost an expectation.
“Regardless of what happens, if something crazy goes against us and it’s demoralizing, they’re just going to keep fighting. I applaud them for that. I think that’s just kind of the character of the team now, and it’s what we expect.”
Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com. Follow him on Bluesky at peteabeglobe.bsky.social.