After months on the injured list with a strange hand injury rarely seen in professional baseball players, Roman Anthony began swinging a bat in late July. His return timeline to the Boston Red Sox was finally starting to take shape.
Around that time, something began to change in Boston. Jarren Duran has finally started to look like himself.
The outfielder's turnaround is well summarized by his August 26 performance against the Miami Marlins. While he only mustered one hit on the day, it was the biggest one of the game — Duran in the 11th inning crushed the game-winning grand slam. He lifted the Sox to a series win and their fifth-straight victory.
Duran's season at the plate had been brutal up to the last few weeks. He was slashing just .201/.259/.354 with 136 strikeouts through August 13. But by then, his luck was already beginning to change. Duran is batting .273/.316/.464 with five homers in his last 30 games.
Jarren Duran is contributing at the plate for the Red Sox right before Roman Anthony's return cuts some of his playing time
Despite his ugly slash line, Duran's season has been better on paper than many fans have given him credit for. He's reached 18 home runs this season, the third-most on the Red Sox behind Willson Contreras and Wilyer Abreu, and he's managed 66 RBI. He's also had a resurgent defensive season with two defensive runs saved and four outs above average in left field.
Duran had most of the playing time in left field to himself throughout the year. Anthony has been injured since May 4. Masataka Yoshida joined him on the injured list on August 16, but the Red Sox rarely played him in the field before that. Boston didn't have someone to play the field while Duran was struggling to give him a break.
Anthony told reporters, including Chris Cotillo of MassLive, that he's feeling well enough to be activated as soon as Friday, August 28 to face off against the New York Yankees. Interim manager Chad Tracy has said Anthony won't play the field every day to limit injury risk as much as possible, leaving some playing time for the newly-hot Duran, but he probably won't be in left field on the daily like he has been all season.
The Red Sox hoped to rely more on Duran this season as a consistent offensive threat, but his production didn't allow for it. A surging Duran and a healthy Anthony could make Boston's lineup more dangerous than it's been all year.
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