Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran has tested positive for COVID-19, manager Alex Cora told reporters (including Steve Hewitt of the Boston Herald). Boston had placed Duran, who had been feeling virus-like symptoms, on the COVID IL before tonight’s game. Catcher Connor Wong was recalled to take his active roster spot.
Duran becomes the eighth Red Sox player to test positive over the past week. Kiké Hernández, Christian Arroyo, Martín Pérez, Matt Barnes, Hirokazu Sawamura, Xander Bogaerts and Yairo Muñoz have all tested positive and are currently unavailable, as is reliever Josh Taylor (who was isolated as a close contact). Despite the series of hits to the roster, the Red Sox have pushed their lead over the Athletics to three games in the race for the American League’s final Wild Card spot.
One of the game’s top prospects, Duran got his first big league call in mid-July. The 24-year-old has had some struggles at the plate to begin his career, hitting just .215/.241/.336 with a pair of homers over his first 112 plate appearances.
He looks so alive in the pic (mobile)
Thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery.
And the beat goes on.
*And every little thing the reflex does leaves you answered with a question mark.
Obscure Duran Duran, but I get it
incoming, “I can’t believe Bloom botched the deadline” comments, as if to suggest he could have prevented this or missing so many players wasnt hurting the team.
Obviously a Yankee fan here, but I thought Cashman was out of a job when the second outbreak hit (and probably before it). It’s unfortunately part of the game this year, so gotta make due and currently the Sox are
COVID and the roster changes shook up the Yanks and brought them back to life. No excuses for any team. Everyone is dealing with this. To win you have to be good, lucky and healthy. That’ll never change.
Lay this on the GM and Manager for not enforcing strong enough protocols to prevent this. Shame on the players for not being vigilant about doing everything possible to avoid getting COVID. Masks, hand sanitizers and anything else that reduces risk should have been followed including team gatherings. Losing a chance for the post season for not being vigilant in preventing outbreaks is on the whole team and is an offense that should have grave ramifications for the GM and Manager.
Boston was in more of a free fall before the COVID problems. More likely Bloom imported the COVID to take the focus away from his miserable deadline efforts.
You need to pay attention to the stats. Seriously. Schwarber is absolutely killing it. This was either the best, or second best trade at the deadline. Are you maybe not aware of how Schwarber is doing?
Second best, Mad Max and Trea take the cake
Performance-wise, they are way ahead. But the two guys they gave up are probably worth as much as our top four prospects, maybe more.
I’d love to have Scherzer for sure, but we simply aren’t at that level yet.
I love what Schwarber has done for Boston so far. I’d love to see them try to re-sign him at the end of the year as well. He fits great on this team even without a true position. Outside of the monster Dodgers deal for Max/Trea, the only other acquisition close to Schwarber has been Starling Marte for Oakland. He’s been fantastic as well.
I love his bat, but where does he play? It’ll likely be Verdugo, Duran and Renfroe starting the OF, Dalbec at 1B, and JDM at DH. Great trade, but I’m not sure I’d keep him.
I wonder if we try to trade JDM to make room and open up DH. It’s obvious Cora and Bloom want that position to be a revolving one… JDM’s days are limited
We could, but I don’t think we’d sign Schwarber even then. We currently have Devers and Dalbec, Casas in maybe 23. And there is always a GM out there that will convince themselves that Schwarber will be a outfield option for 4 years, and that will drive the price tag out of our range.
This could be the most moronic comment ever. This year was supposed to be building for the future and restocking the farm. They overachieved and fell back to earth.
Giants fans wish their team tested positive for the ability to make it past the wild card game
Or should I say, they will be wishing for it in a month’s time
MetsFan22… I think the red Sox have rivaled the Mets injury woes with covid twice and Sale missing half a season much like deGoat
The Sox have been lucky until this outbreak. They knew Sale’s timeline. The Mets and Yanks have had it far worse.
Not even. Boston had been relatively healthy all year save for a spot here or there. This is the first real blow to the team. The health woes for the year go to either the Mets or White Sox. Honorable mention to Atlanta.
Isn’t he one of those antivax right wingers?
Whether he is an anti-vax right winger or a big government will save me progressive, either way he is going to have better immunity from covid now than had he been vaccinated according to high ranking officials at Pfizer, who surprisingly admitted as much this week. I’m not anti-vax, just more interested in the truth than either sides narrative.
And he will have even better immunity if he gets vaccinated now that he’s had it.
I’m a RW-C, and my view is, how does this differ from a flu shot. I’m 50/50 to get either one, and unlikely to die from it. I never got the flu shot as a kid, but once the company starting giving them on-site, it felt silly to not avail myself of the extra protection, with not a lot of downside.
Im not a rw-c, but i feel the same way, and did the same thing when pertaining to flu shots through my life.
Boston just can’t afford to have this spread to Garrett Richards. It’s hard to believe I just typed that sentence! I wanted to run him out of town in July but since his move to the bullpen, he has been an absolute weapon for them in high leverage situations. Schwarber, Renfroe & Dalbec have been carrying the team offensively as well. Great job by Cora mixing and matching the rest of the lineup. Jack Lopez started at 2B for them tonight for God’s sake! If they are able to hold on to the wildcard through all of this, Cora has to get a ton of credit for doing so. This team is being held together by popsicle sticks and duct tape right now, but somehow I find them more likable this way. They are playing like they did back in May once again. Just need to hope their few remaining offensive starters can stay hot at the plate and their patchwork bullpen can hold it together.
Richards has two three inning saves. Old school.
Seriously, over the years, the Red Sox have turned a number of starters into bullpen forces. The other way around has been a disaster. So there’s that.
There is no way to not like this team.
IRT Richards, he has stuff. Guys like that make better transitions to the BP than guys like Perez, imvho.
I assume he will be looking for a starting gig in the off-season, but if were okay with a BP role, I’d at least inquire as to what his price is.
It would be silly to get excited over just 3 games, last time they won 3 straight they followed it up with 3 straight losses.
But if they can get thru the next 11 games with at least a 6-5 record, I think they’ve got a great chance at the wild card.
Cora deserves no credit, but at least he’s changed his approach by letting his starters go longer and not pulling his best relievers too quickly.
Lineups are still a joke, Schwarber should be batting 3rd and Verdugo leadoff until the player whose name I’m not allowed to type returns from Covid.
Sox are 16-20 in the past 36 including a pathetic 5-15 against divisional contenders, all blame should be put on Cora for blowing what had been a huge WC lead at the trade deadline.
He left Eovaldi in a little too long but he kind of had to. The bullpen is way thin. Fortunately the bats took over. They are playing better lately. It couldn’t possibly be the manager, though, with his silly lineup that somehow had Schwarbenegger come up in the big moment of the game. That must’ve been just luck.
Just a couple of comments:
1-If it is silly to get excited over 3 straight wins (I agree), then I assume it is just as silly to get excited over three straight losses?
2-Okay if you don’t want to credit Cora, but then by default, you have to credit Bloom, right? If we make the playoffs, despite the predictions, someone should get some credit, right?
3-Cora didn’t blow the lead, the Yankees did. They are 24-8 since the trade deadline.
It’s more than a little disappointing that an organization that prides itself as being so progressive has, apparently, such a low vaccination rate. You would think they would be at the forefront. It ain’t like there aren’t enough medical experts in the Boston area.
And ya, Cora’s been “lucky” in many of his game decisions. MOST of management in game decisions are more luck than anything else; nature of the beast; baseball’s a very accidental game. But he pushed all the right buttons in ’19; maybe the pixie dust is working again.
Yes, my dad had a Fellowship at Harvard when he was 24, fresh off his MIT PhD in Biochemistry. Man, I wish he was still alive today. He would be a great source of meaningful information. Boston is full of smart people.
Hey, if it’s pixie dust, so be it. Just beat the yankees, damn it. That’s all that matters.
“MOST of management in game decisions are more luck than anything else;”
Bob-beautifully phrased. Most decisions, by most managers, are coin flip decisions. The difference between sacrificing and hitting away, in the AL, is pretty small.
If you are hitting on 55%, you’re doing really well. We bought Whitlock in against the NYY. It should’ve worked, but it didn’t. We’ve allowed Arauz to hit instead of pinchhitting, and it did work. Leaving Richards in for a three-inning save, bringing in Ottavino in the 7th, instead of the 9th, and letting Whitlock close out. Any of these decisions could go wrong. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t good decisions.
It’s’ mostly luck. If Kevin Cash, whose as good as anyone out there, pulls Snell and the reliever gets the Dodgers 1-2-3, he’s a genius; the reliever fails, so Cash is an idiot. Cash of course is neither. Luck IS the residue of design, but there’s a fudge factor that doesn’t get appreciated.
an organization that prides itself as being so progressive has,
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But it is not the organization; it is the players.
Solid point.
One of the games top prospects?? That must’ve been before they found out that he can’t hit a major league fastball. He should never see anything off speed in the zone.
Because if I’ve learned anything in nearly 60 years of tracking baseball statistics, it’s that you can tell everything you need to know about a ballplayer after his first 112 plate appearances. Indeed.
alwaysgo4two2 hours ago
One of the games top prospects?
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It’s a statement of fact, not opinion. While you might not like him, BA has him ranked #29. Which means he is a top prospect.
So now there’s eight men out for the Sox. How quaint.
Nice!!