Only 19 different major leaguers in the past three years have played in 160 or more games in one season.
Jarren Duran is on pace to start 160 games in 2024 and he has been the Red Sox’ MVP. He has a 6.3 fWAR, more than two points better than any other Boston player.
Red Sox' Jarren Duran has struggled in September. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)AP
But he has struggled in September. He went 0-for-3 in the Red Sox’ 2-0 loss to the Rays here Thursday at Tropicana Field.
You have to wonder if such a heavy workload has caused his numbers to dip.
Duran is just 15-for-71 (.211) with a .233 on-base percentage, .239 slugging percentage, .472 OPS, two doubles, one walk and 17 strikeouts in 17 games during September.
How’s he holding up?
“Physically, I’m hurting. I’m sore but I don’t like to use that as an excuse,” Duran said. “I just blame myself. I’m not playing good baseball right now. It’s just on me right now for not doing what I can do to be better for this team.”
Manager Alex Cora used Connor Wong as a pinch hitter for Duran in the ninth inning against Rays left-handed reliever Garrett Cleavinger.
“I just feel like I’m doing too much right now,” Duran said. “I feel like I’ve been known to try and press and do too much. And I can totally feel myself doing that. I’ve just gotta relax and just play and have some more fun.”
Cora said about pinch hitting for Duran, “You’ve gotta manage the game, right? And he understands.”
Duran isn’t the only Red Sox hitter slumping. Pretty much everyone is. Only one batter reached base for Boston on Thursday. Nick Sogard singled in the third inning. Besides that, Rays starter Zack Littell (7 innings) and two relievers retired 27 of 28 Red Sox hitters.
“It’s baseball, man. I know every guy in this room is trying their hardest, which could just be our thing right now is that we’re trying too hard,” Duran said. “At the end of the day, it’s baseball. He was just hitting his spots, locating, stuff like that. He just had us today.”
Rafael Devers went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts (two looking and one swinging).
Devers went 0-for-11 with eight strikeouts while also grounding into one double play during this three-game series.
Cora said the offense hasn’t executed “in a month and a half.”
“At one point, we were the best offense in baseball against righties,” Cora said. “And now we’re not producing runs.”
