Jarren Duran Proud Red Sox Could ‘Punch Back’ Against Angels

Johnny Pesky appeared to be watching over the Red Sox in their series finale Wednesday against the Los Angeles Angels at Fenway Park.

With a seemingly lazy, non-threatening fly ball, Ceddanne Rafaela sneaked a walkoff win for Boston with a two-run homer around Pesky’s Pole.

Jarren Duran said the Red Sox players always shout the same thing whenever one of their batters hits the ball to that part of the field.

“From where I was sitting, every time the ball goes down the line we’re screaming ‘Pesky’ from the dugout,” Duran told reporters after Boston’s 11-9 win. “Usually, it’s way foul. We’re just searching for something. But that time, it actually worked.

“But from where I was sitting, I couldn’t get a good glance at it. I was trying to fight people to get on the rail to see where it was going. It just worked out for us.”

It could have been easy for the Red Sox to lie down and give the Angels the game after LA took a 4-0 lead in the first inning, and with four lead changes, Boston kept battling back to eventually come away with win to avoid the three-game sweep.

“It was a grindy one. I mean, felt like we played two games out there,” Duran said. “It was a big one. They fought hard, we fought hard, and we just came in on top.

“I’m really proud of this team for keeping at it. We could have easily gotten down on ourselves after taking the lead, giving it up, taking the lead, giving it up. But as a team, we came together and we pulled out the W.”

The Angels took a 9-8 lead in the eighth inning, and flashbacks of the Red Sox not being able to close out one-run games came to the forefront. This time, however, Boston battled back to tie the game — again — before securing the victory in the bottom of the ninth.

“I mean, at the end of the day, a win’s a win,” Duran said. “And I’m proud of the team, the way we fought, especially in the environment we’re in. It felt like we were always on our heels in this game.

“… I keep saying it, but I’m just really proud of this team, how we fought, and we were able to come back, even though we got punched in the mouth, we were able to punch back. … For us to be able to punch back like that was huge because we could have easily went in the tank and been like, ‘All right, we’re down, this game’s over.’ We could have totally backed it up, but I don’t feel that’s our nature, and we just fought the whole time.”