Jarren Duran went 4 for 4, finishing with a crucial tiebreaking homer with two outs in the eighth inning, which helped the Boston Red Sox win 6-5 against the Houston Astros on Tuesday night.
The game was tied at 5 when Duran hit a fastball from Caleb Ort (1-1) over the left-center field wall, matching his season high for hits. He also walked once and scored three times.
“He’s so dynamic. He’s so good,” Boston manager Alex Cora said. “He’s becoming one of those guys that I bet people would pay to watch. You want to see it and you better get here early because from the very first pitch on he’s going to do something special. And I’m glad he’s our leadoff guy.”
Duran has hit safely in 26 of his last 30 games and is batting .343 with a 1.035 OPS and 23 extra-base hits along with 23 RBIs during that stretch.
He mentioned it felt good to beat the Astros after they swept a three-game series in Boston earlier this month.
“They’ve been beating us up pretty often and it’s nice for us to be able to fight back and show them that we can compete with them, even though they’ve got a really good team over there,” Duran said.
Triston Casas, who had two hits and three RBIs, gave Boston a 3-0 lead in the first inning with a two-run homer. Casas is 7 for 20 since returning from the injured list on Friday after missing 98 games with a left rib strain.
Jon Singleton hit a two-run homer to tie the game in the bottom half, and Yainer Diaz homered for a third straight game with a shot to left-center that tied the game at 5 in the fifth inning.
But the AL West-leading Astros went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and lost for only the second time in 13 games.
Red Sox starter Nick Pivetta allowed six hits and five runs in five innings. Zack Kelly (5-2) pitched a perfect seventh inning for the win, and Kenley Jansen threw a scoreless ninth for his 24th save.
