Red Sox' Jarren Duran's struggles in Sept. continue: 'Physically, I'm hurting'
Red Sox center fielder Jarren Duran is on pace to start 160 games this season. The American League All-Star MVP has had a fantastic season, posting a 6.3 fWAR, according to FanGraphs, which is two points higher than any other Red Sox player.
With just nine games remaining, Duran looks like he’s running out of gas, and that’s been reflective in his Sept. stats. The speedy outfielder went 0-for-3 in the Sox’ 2-0 loss to the Rays on Thursday night.
He is just 15-for-71 (.211) with a .233 on-base percentage, .239 slugging percentage, .472 OPS, two doubles, one walk, and 17 strikeouts in 17 games during September.
“Physically, I’m hurting. I’m sore, but I don’t like to use that as an excuse,” Duran said. “I just blame myself. I’m not playing good baseball right now. It’s just on me right now for not doing what I can do to be better for this team.”
Red Sox skipper Alex Cora used catcher Connor Wong to pinch hit for Duran in the ninth inning to face Rays southpaw Garrett Cleavinger.
“I just feel like I’m doing too much right now,” Duran said. “I feel like I’ve been known to try and press and do too much. And I can totally feel myself doing that. I’ve just gotta relax and just play and have some more fun.”
The Red Sox lineup is struggling overall and ran into a buzzsaw in Rays’ Zack Littell in the series finale. The righty tossed seven scoreless frames and gave up the game’s only hit to rookie infielder Nick Sogard.
“It’s baseball, man. I know every guy in this room is trying their hardest, which could just be our thing right now is that we’re trying too hard,” Duran said. “At the end of the day, it’s baseball. He was just hitting his spots, locating, stuff like that. He just had us today.”
With the Red Sox trailing the Tigers and Twins by four games for the final American League wild-card spot, time is running out. With a loss this weekend, the Sox would essentially hammer a nail into their coffin. The offense went from being red-hot and one of the best in baseball to one that can’t produce any runs.
The pitching has had their warts down the stretch, and the offense looking so Jekyll and Hyde in the second half might be the main reason why there’ll be no October baseball at Fenway Park.
