Mitch Keller wore a look of utter disbelief after watching Jarren Duran cross home plate on his feet, pulling off the rare feat of hitting an inside-the-park home run against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
After humming through three scoreless innings with six strikeouts, the Pirates right-hander dealt with the disaster of a four-run inning — all unearned — that caused a seismic shift of the game’s momentum.
The Boston Red Sox took advantage of an error, a ground-rule double and a hit batsman when Duran roped a belt-high fastball for a line drive to right-center for the three-run homer that electrified the Fenway Park crowd.
It took fewer than 15 seconds for Duran to sprint around the basepaths and help the Red Sox roll to a 5-2 win Sunday afternoon that prevented the Pirates from pulling off a series sweep.
“I just didn’t execute it as high as I wanted to,” Keller told SportsNet Pittsburgh on its postgame show. “Looking back, I’d probably throw something else but I can’t take it back now. He’s a good player. That was a big moment, and he’s a big-moment player. He executed and I didn’t, and that’s the difference in the game.”
The Pirates (61-77), who had won eight of their last 10, blew what began as a solid start by Keller (6-13). He had seven strikeouts against one walk and allowed four hits on 90 pitches in five innings.
Red Sox starter Lucas Giolito (10-2) — who threw a no-hitter for the Chicago White Sox against the Pirates in a 4-0 win on Aug. 25, 2020 — limited them to one run on three hits despite issuing five walks and striking out six over six innings.
Spencer Horwitz started the fourth with a ground-rule double down the left field line but was caught stealing third. With two outs, Nick Gonzales and Andrew McCutchen drew back-to-back full-count walks. Giolito then walked Oneil Cruz to load the bases, and with a 1-2 count against Henry Davis threw a wild pitch that allowed Gonzales to score and give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. Giolito got Davis to ground out to first to limit the damage.
Keller got into a jam in the fourth when Alex Bregman hit a leadoff single, Duran drew a full-count walk and both advanced into scoring position on Trevor Story’s groundout to first. But Keller got Nathaniel Lowe looking at a called strike on a 2-2 sweeper, then got Mastaka Yoshida to ground out to first to strand both runners.
Keller had no such luck in the fifth.
Romy Gonzalez reached on a throwing error by Gonzales, then reached third on a ground-rule double by Carlos Narvaez down the right field line. With two outs, Keller hit Bregman with a pitch to put runners on the corners for Duran.
After a mound visit by Pirates pitching coach Oscar Marin, Duran drilled a first-pitch fastball for a line drive to right-center that got past both right fielder Alexander Canario and Cruz and rolled to the 420-foot notch. By the time Cruz retrieved the ball and threw to the cutoff, Duran was rounding third and headed for home uncontested for a 4-1 lead.
“He hit it well to the gap and it looked like to me like it split both guys,” manager Don Kelly said. “Fenway Park and the intricacies there in right-center, all the way to the 420. It kind of kicked off and couldn’t corral it right away. That’s a long way to throw from 420 to get a guy as fast as he is.”
The Red Sox tacked on another run in the sixth against Colin Holderman. Lowe hit a leadoff single, advanced to second on a single by Gonzalez and scored on Ceddanne Rafaela’s single to short to make it 5-1. With the bases loaded, Bregman hit a sharp grounder to third base, where Cam Devanney was making his major league debut, and the rookie spun to throw him out to end the inning.
Justin Slaten relieved Giolito in the seventh, only for Canario to lead it off by crushing a 3-2 cutter for a 405-foot home run, his fifth of the season, over the Green Monster to cut it to 5-2.
The Pirates loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth on singles by Gonzales and Cruz and a walk by pinch hitter Bryan Reynolds, only for Canario to go down swinging at Garrett Whitlock’s slider. The Pirates went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position and left nine on base.
The Red Sox turned to Aroldis Chapman in the ninth, and the seven-time All-Star closer recorded a pair of strikeouts in retiring the side to earn his 27th save.
After splitting a four-game series at St. Louis, the Pirates finished their seven-game road trip with a series win before returning home for a six-game homestand starting Tuesday against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“Anytime you come into Fenway and can win a series, especially as well as the Red Sox were playing, we’ll definitely take that,” Kelly said. “The road trip on the whole, 4-3 going back. Obviously wish we could have gotten the one today but taking a series at Fenway is always encouraging.”
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