The play of Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran during Boston’s 10-game homestand has been filled with blunders.
There was a major one he made that needs no rehashing, and the 25-year-old committed another miscue in the Red Sox’s 9-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday at Fenway Park.
Duran led off the bottom of the first inning by walking against Brewers starting pitcher Eric Lauer. But that didn’t serve as a catalyst for Boston’s offense, as Duran promptly got picked off first by the left-hander.
Despite the mistakes piling up recently, Red Sox manager Alex Cora continues to pencil in Duran almost every day into the starting lineup. Cora understands that Duran is with the Red Sox somewhat out of necessity due to the injury to Kiké Hernández.
And for that reason, along with the fact that Duran just played in his 70th game in the big leagues, he has taken a patient approach with the youngster. Cora wants to get Duran more experience so that he can work through his struggles, and sometimes the only way to do that is to keep playing him.
“We talk about. We went over that pick right there. The guy has a great move. In that situation you don’t want to get picked off,” Cora said, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “He’s still learning. He’s still young. It’s part of the process. The fact that he’s here is because we needed him at that point. There’s going to be some great days and there’s going to be some tough days.
“The thing is, us as a coaching staff, we got to keep preaching and talking and show him stuff and keep teaching him the game. He was in Triple-A for a reason. To get more at-bats and more innings and play. Kiké gets hurt, he’s the guy here. That thing happens to a lot of them.”
With the way things are going for the Red Sox — they have lost 17 out of their last 22 games — Cora knows finger-pointing from the outside will begin about who to blame for the team’s poor play, and some will point at Duran.
But Cora has seen improvement from the center fielder recently.
“I know people haven’t noticed it, but his jumps are getting a lot better the last 10 days,” Cora said. “There’s a lot of stuff that he’s doing right and there’s other stuff that he keeps learning. That’s what we’re here for.”
Cora admitted that there’s still a steep learning curve to tackle for Duran, and the coaching staff needs to help him overcome it in an effort to get the most out of his skill set.
“We trust the kid. He’s very talented, but he needs to keep learning the game,” Cora said. “That’s the most important thing.”
