Red Sox @ Brewers Game Thread/ 21rst- 23rd April 2023

RED SOX NOTEBOOK
This Jarren Duran could be the one the Red Sox have been waiting to see
By Julian McWilliams Globe Staff,Updated April 20, 2023, 7:30 p.m.


Jarren Duran is at his best when playing with reckless abandonment. Or, as he puts it, “playing with his hair on fire.”

There’s a certain level of conviction that comes with that. Audaciousness.

Yet that flame can burn out quickly, much like it has for Duran in parts of the last two seasons since making his Red Sox debut in 2021. There were glimpses of his impact, but it was not sustained.

Experience is required. Preparation and understanding how your opponents want to attack you even more so.

The grind of the year will be the true test of Duran’s progression in those latter areas. But could the Sox have a different Duran?

Perhaps.

The center fielder went 1 for 2 with a double, walk, and three RBIs in Thursday’s 11-5 win at Fenway Park against the Twins.

Duran’s two-run double in the fourth marked his fourth consecutive game with a double and his third straight game with an RBI. The lefthanded hitter is 5 for 13 since he was recalled from Triple A Worcester on Monday.

“He’s been good,” manager Alex Cora said before the series finale. “You can see it with the intent of the swing. You see it from batting practice. It’s not the show that he was trying to put on the last few years, hitting the ball in the air to the pull-side. Now, he’s driving the ball to left field and left-center.”

Duran has tinkered with his setup over the years, mainly involving his hand placement. At times, his hands would be near his midsection while in his stance. In other at-bats, he placed his hands near the letters on his jersey. But teams began exploiting Duran at the top of the strike zone, knowing it would be tough for him to get to fastballs in that area.

So, this year, Duran went back to what he always knew: hands above the shoulders. His swing looks more under control. Direct to the ball, and teams can’t pound him at the top of the zone as much.

“It’s that,” said Duran after the Sox got back to .500 (10-10). “But I also feel like I’m keeping my rhythm right now, which is a big thing for me. So like, if I keep my rhythm then I feel like I’ll make better pitch selection. That all comes into play.”

Duran missed much of spring training after he chose to play for Mexico in the World Baseball Classic. Raimel Tapia, who signed a minor league deal with an invite to spring training, took advantage of Duran’s absence and ultimately left Fort Myers with a big league gig. Meanwhile, Duran had just five WBC at-bats and was optioned to Worcester.

“The tournament helped some players, but it didn’t help him. Let’s be honest,” Cora said. “[Before he left for the WBC], he was driving the ball the other way [during spring training], he was swinging at the right pitches, and playing good baseball. When he came back, he was behind.”

It helps that Duran is carrying a lighter load mentally this year, after fighting off some of the pressure that comes with playing in Boston. He mentioned Kiké Hernández as a teammate he has grown closer to and who has helped to guide him.

“I’ve just been talking to people,” Duran said. “And not just letting it build up inside and tearing myself up.”

When the Sox recalled Duran last year at the beginning of June, he hit .308/.357/.474 (.832 OPS) in his first 20 games. Then he hit the cellar, batting .164 in his next 37.

The struggles will come again. But just maybe Duran’s response will be different. Maybe the Sox will finally get the player they envisioned.

Hernández hits No. 100

Hernández didn’t know he hit his 100th career homer Wednesday night in the sixth inning of a loss to the Twins. He was alerted by teammate Justin Turner.

“I wish I was more present in the moment,” Hernández said Thursday.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t take away from the significance, especially if you’ve carved out a career mainly as a valuable role player like Hernández has done.

Hernández is just the seventh player in the modern era to hit 100 homers and play at least 10 games at every position besides pitcher or catcher. The Rangers’ Brad Miller is the only other active player on the list.

“Being only six other guys to do it, I mean that’s pretty cool, to be honest with you. The road to 200 starts today. Hopefully it doesn’t take 10 seasons to get there,” Hernández joked.

Hernández began the season in a rut and snapped an 0 for 28 slump last week against the Rays. Since then, he is riding a seven-game hit streak with a .423 average in that span, including Thursday’s 3 for 5.

“I’m getting there,” Hernández said. “Obviously it was getting frustrating with no getting results. But in Tampa I started focusing on letting the ball get deep a little bit more and going the other way. I also got rid of the leg kick for a little bit and it has seemed to help me out.”
Paxton struggles out of ’pen

James Paxton allowed seven earned runs on five hits (one homer) and two walks in just two-thirds of an inning Wednesday in a Triple A rehab outing. The WooSox utilized the opener strategy with Paxton coming out of the bullpen, a role he isn’t accustomed to, for the third inning. The plan was for Paxton to pitch five of the bulk innings. Cora said despite the results, Paxton’s stuff was good, according to reports he received. Paxton will start in his next rehab appearance … Yu Chang was reinstated from the paternity list before the game and fellow infielder Enmanuel Valdez was optioned to Triple A Worcester. Chang homered in his return.

Against the contending Twins, multiple Red Sox who need to step forward more than did so




By Jon Couture
April 21, 2023 | 8:28 AM

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COMMENTARY

Thursday was Fenway Park’s 111th birthday, with the park’s first official game on April 20, 1912, a late victory over the Highlanders (later to be known as the Yankees) by the Red Sox (later not to be known as the Speed Boys, Casey & Barrett’s anthem not having the sticking power of, say, New England, The Patriots and We).

To much less fanfare, Thursday at Fenway Park was another cherished holiday, The School Vacation Game. It’s the end of April break in Massachusetts, and a mid-week, homestand-wrapping matinee is the perfect chance to get the kids to the park. At least in years that don’t include a freebie, 12-minute game.

The kids ran the bases in the late afternoon beneath a cloudless sky, everyone happy after the home team won a series against an honest-to-goodness division leader to reclaim .500. Single games and even single series can trick the mind, but few teams better fit their record than this mediocre bunch.

But Thursday specifically was laden with promise in a lot of places this team needs it, beginning with Tanner Houck.

Days after his staff brother Garrett Whitlock’s three-hit gem against the Angels, Houck was just as good, though the numbers aren’t entirely there after Willi Castro tagged him for a two-run homer in the seventh.

It was 10-1, and thus forgivable. The Sox are 4-0 in Houck starts, and while that has a lot to do with scoring 39 runs in those four games, he’s more than doing his part.

“Very aggressive in the zone. Set the tempo for that outing in the first inning,” manager Alex Cora told reporters. “If he can harness his stuff in the strike zone, he can go deeper into the game. … [if he’s] efficient, the stuff is going to be better.”

Houck arrived, and was a phenom in, the summer of 2020 on the back of a wipeout slider. In an abbreviated stint, he threw it about 35 percent of the time and got hitters to miss on about half their swings. The night he destroyed the Miami Marlins with it and a mid-90s fastball is possibly the only good thing to come out of the 2020 Red Sox actually playing games.

Two pitches, however, does not make a starter, and Houck long seemed destined for a relief role because his repertoire beyond was inconsistent. That still seemed true as recently as last year, when he was the most effective patch at the back end of a brutal bullpen throwing his fastball, sinker, and slider 94 percent of the time (per Baseball Savant).

He, like most, wanted more for himself. And on Thursday, he hit the Twins with five pitches across his seven innings, getting six of his 16 swings and misses from 10 tries at his splitter. Even his new-for-2023 cutter was a strike on nine of 15 offerings.

“I definitely feel like I’ve put myself in an even better [position] than I have in years past,” Houck told the The Boston Globe earlier this month. “I ultimately have four pitches, five pitches that I feel like I can throw at any point.”

Houck’s fighting for a place in a crowded starting rotation currently running six arms. Alex Verdugo’s place in the lineup is less in doubt, but handed the leadoff spot to begin a year with no clear candidate for it, he’s off to a torrid .338/.407/.481 start after a 5 for 13 series that included a walkoff single Tuesday and a leadoff homer Thursday.

Results can lie, but Verdugo’s aren’t. Based on the quality of his contact, he has the highest expected batting average on the team at .338 and is missing on just 4.8 percent of his swings (per Sports Info Solutions), the fifth-lowest rate in the majors.

“I’m just kind of working to my strengths,” he told the Globe. “Sometimes you run away from it, you get away from it. But I found that just staying inside the ball and trying to go the other way, for me, is a lot more beneficial.”

Verdugo’s average launch angle has increased, to what would be a career high 10.5 degrees, but he says that’s not a conscious focus. If anything, Cora notes, it’s the opposite.

“It’s the quality of the at-bats. He’s not trying to hit homers,” he told reporters Thursday. “He’s just trying to stay inside the ball, staying through the ball. Swing at the right pitches.”

The most striking example, however, might’ve come over the shortest window. Jarren Duran doubled for the fourth time in four games Thursday, his latest missing a home run by inches. His speed certainly helps — Wednesday’s was a single he made more on a snoozing Michael A. Taylor — but so too does a hand-lifting tweak at the plate.

“It made me feel more comfortable in the box. Just kind of like, kind of my old swing used to be, with my hands higher,” he told the Globe after his callup Monday. “It just feels like I was going back to something I know.”

It’s a long way not only from his disastrous 2022, but this spring, when he looked better in Fort Myers only to depart for riding the bench on Mexico’s World Baseball Classic team. It felt like another misstep for a player who couldn’t go five minutes without one last summer.

It’s a small sample. If you remember Duran’s August visit to Kansas City, you know to be quiet and take it.

There was more from these games, too. Triston Casas drew five walks, doubling his season total from the first 16 games despite continuing to struggle offensively. Masataka Yoshida broke an 0-for-18 skid with two RBI singles Thursday — one to center, one an outer-half fastball ripped the other way.

“The intent of going the other way is helping him,” Cora told reporters, as aware of the litany of right-side groundouts as you are.

It’s a stretch of good baseball. A team that was 5-8 is now 10-10, headed into a Milwaukee-Baltimore road trip that used to pass for an AL East tour. This time, they don’t call the Brewers yard Miller Park, but they also won’t be filming scenes for “Still We Believe: The Boston Red Sox Movie” there.

Talk about another piece of Red Sox ephemera best left in the dustbin. Things really might be looking up.

Amen, TC, amen.

How Verdugo took Cora's offseason challenge personally
1:48 AM ADT

Tim Stebbins

MILWAUKEE -- After taking a trip around the bases Friday, it was Alex Verdugo’s turn to take the Red Sox’s inflatable dumbbells for a spin down the dugout handshake line.

And considering the strong start Verdugo has gotten off to this season, there may not be anyone currently more fitting to wield the team’s new celebratory accessory.

Verdugo, who hit a walk-off single Tuesday, continued his torrid start offensively this season in Friday’s 5-3 win over the Brewers at American Family Field, finishing the night 2-for-5 with a two-run homer and a double.

“He's swinging the bat well,” manager Alex Cora said. “I thought he swung the bat well in the second part of the season last year; he was getting on base and hitting homers. But I think the quality of the at-bats when he started hitting fourth last year were really good. He's doing a lot of other stuff well [too].”

At the end of last season, Cora pinpointed Verdugo -- a key part of Boston’s return from the Dodgers in the 2020 Mookie Betts trade -- as someone on his roster who could take a step forward in 2023.

So far, so good. Verdugo has been one of Boston’s most encouraging developments and steadiest hitters in the early going this season. In 21 games, he holds a .341/.407/.524 slash line, with three homers and 10 RBIs.

He’s tallied at least one hit in 17 of his 21 games played, including nine multihit efforts, doing it largely out of the leadoff spot, where he’s made 14 starts.

Cora, asked whether Verdugo has met his challenge, instead pointed to the outfielder’s work in the offseason.

“I think it was more about what he needed to do, personally, to get to this level, and he cleaned up a lot of stuff in the offseason,” Cora said. “You look at his body compared to last year, it’s night and day. His routine’s a lot better. Last year, it became easy for him to hit towards the end. But I think over 162, your routines have to be more structured to be able to perform at this level. And so far? So good.”

Verdugo said he focused heavily on baseball-oriented work this winter, with a lot of movement work, rather than bodybuilder-type exercises. He said he wanted to feel lighter on his feet, and so far, it’s working.

Friday, he gave the Red Sox an early 2-0 lead with a home run off a Freddy Peralta slider in the third inning. Even more impressive was his 11-pitch battle with Peralta in the fifth -- the longest at-bat of his career. After falling behind 0-2, Verdugo fouled off six of the next eight pitches he saw, also taking two out of the strike zone, to work back into the count. He roped a double into right field on the 11th pitch.

Verdugo, who fouled a number of pitches the other way, said his mentality was to see the ball deep in the zone after striking out on a slider in his first plate appearance.

“He was throwing me heaters, and I was fouling them off to the left side, in the stands,” Verdugo said. “That's where I wanted to be. It means I was making good passes, staying inside of it. Finally I got the curveball down and in, and with that approach, I was able to stay through it, keep it fair and got a double.”
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As much as he’s off to a great start, Verdugo recognizes it’s early in the season. And as much work as he’s done, he knows there is more to do.

“We’ve got to do it for 141 more games,” said Verdugo when asked whether he feels he’s met Cora’s challenge. “This is just something we're trying to take day by day, right? I'm just trying to be a good teammate, be a good guy, go about it the right way, prepare the right way and, obviously, just trying to play the right way, man.

“I feel like when you play hard, when you run down, bust 90s and do certain things, a lot of the teams, whether it's opposing teams, your teammates, your coaching staffs -- everybody notices it, man. Fans appreciate it. Your teammates appreciate it. And that's just something that I really wanted to challenge myself. AC challenged me with a lot of things, and I took it personally. We're still holding on to that.”