Fastball

Jarren Duran and Alex Cora Each Make Red Sox History in Massive Win on Monday

The Boston Red Sox kicked off a big series with a win in on Monday. In the win over the Royals, Jarren Duran and Alex Cora each made some impressive team history.

Brady Farkas

Boston Red Sox left fielder Jarren Duran (16) drives in a run with a fielders choice in the second inning against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on Aug 5.
Boston Red Sox left fielder Jarren Duran (16) drives in a run with a fielders choice in the second inning against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on Aug 5. / Peter Aiken-USA TODAY Sports
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The Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Royals on Monday 9-5 at Kauffman Stadium. It was a huge win for Boston, who is now just 1.5 games back of Kansas City in the race for the third and final wild card spot in the American League.

The Royals are seeking their first playoff berth since 2015 while the Red Sox are looking to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2021. The Red Sox have 51 more games to play while the Royals have 48. Kansas City's schedule is among the hardest schedules remaining in all of baseball.

As he has many times this year, leadoff hitter Jarren Duran helped fuel the victory by going 1-for-5 with three RBI. Masataka Yoshida also went 4-for-5 as he continues his re-birth in the second half of the season. He's up to .277 now with a .745 OPS.

Rafael Devers, Connor Wong, Ceddanne Rafaela and Nick Sogard also each had multi-hit games.

Duran's performance helped him make some Red Sox team history as well, according to @SoxNotes on social media:

Jarren Duran has started all 110 Red Sox games this season.

He is the only player in Red Sox history to record at least 25 stolen bases and 60 extra-base hits in the club’s first 110 games.

The only other player to do that for his team in 2024 is Shohei Ohtani.

Duran wasn't the only one making history in the win - manager Alex Cora did too.

Alex Cora is only the 4th manager to win 500 games with the Red Sox.
 
Fewest decisions to reach 500 wins with the Red Sox:
 
Terry Francona 862 (500-362)
ALEX CORA 921 (500-421)
Joe Cronin 930 (500-430)
Mike Higgins 995 (500-495)
 
h/t @EliasSports

The Red Sox and Royals will play again on Tuesday night with first pitch coming at 8:10 p.m. ET.

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Brady Farkas

BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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