[crowd chattering indistinctly]
[announcer] Good evening and welcome to Fenway Park,
America's most beloved ballpark,
for tonight's game between the Toronto Blue Jays
and your Boston Red Sox.
[man 1] Oh, awesome, man.
[Cora] Some Celtics are here with their trophy,
so if you wanna say hi to them… Yeah, yeah.
This is my nephew, Jay, and my sister-in-law, Jasmine.
[indistinct chatter]
Not used to being the shortest guy in the room, that's for sure. [chuckles]
It's crazy. [chuckles]
[Andrew] Fucking large humans.
Bro. Huge.
-[Duran] Jarren. -Joe.
[Duran] Nice to meet you. Congratulations.
Thank you. Thank you.
-I like your shirt. -[Duran] Thank you. It's kinda my motto.
I'm a Lakers fan at heart.
I'm from California, but it's awesome to see the title come back to Boston.
-[Mazzulla] It is. -[Duran] It's awesome.
[man 2] Hey, is this a dent? Is that a dent? Whoo!
-[man 3] That's how you know it's been-- -[Cora] Been around the world. [chuckles]
We got, like, the tiniest taste of it in '21,
going to, like, the ALCS.
And it's just like, ever since then, you're like, "I want more. I want more."
[Mazzulla] As soon as the bell went off, I was like, "I want more."
[Garrett] Coming up here and seeing, like, how this city rallies around,
like, championships, it's like…
-Dude. -It's pretty sweet.
It's the best city in America when it comes to sports.
-I mean, I'm biased, but… -[Garrett] He's right.
[all laugh]
[man 4] Whoo!
[Sean] It used to be that
if you were a baseball fan and a Red Sox fan,
you hung in there with them through thick and thin.
I don't think that happens as much anymore.
And I think part of it is
that this is a city that has had so much success
with all four sports teams
that there are alternatives.
[man 5] The fans of New England have been waiting 42 years for this day.
Everyone back in Boston, we're bringing this sucker home!
[Sean] We've had six Patriots Super Bowl championships.
[man 6] For the 17th time, a record, your Boston Celtics.
[Sean] NBA championships.
-Anything's possible! -[thrilling rock music plays]
[cheering]
[Sean] And a Stanley Cup for the Bruins.
That's a lot of success for one town,
and I think it fuels the other teams.
[Garrett] We feed off y'all. We feed off what the Bruins were doing.
I don't know if other cities do that, but I feel like that's special about here.
We watch y'all, and it's just like, dude, everything y'all are doing,
it's just like, "Man, can we do that too? Can we do that too?"
There is some self-imposed pressure to keep up with the Joneses in town.
That if the Celtics are gonna be playing for titles, we need to too.
[music continues]
And it takes a certain personality
to be able to not crack under that pressure.
[electric guitar riffing]
[music fades out]
[crowd chatters]
[Joe] Good evening. Welcome to Fenway Park.
The Red Sox play the Toronto Blue Jays.
[Will] Red Sox, a season-high, six games over .500 right now.
-A 7-1 in the last eight. -[US anthem plays]
[Dave] And they are in possession of the third and final wild card spot
in the American League right now.
[man 1] Yeah, and you look at their roster,
and you're like, "How? How… how are they doing this?"
-Come on, kid. -[Duran] Love you.
Keep going. Vamos.
-[crowd chant] Let's go, Red Sox! -We got a game to play, boys! Come on!
-[crowd] Let's go, Red Sox! -[Duran] Yeah, vamos, vamos!
-[crowd clapping in unison] -[Duran] We got a game to play. Let's go!
[announcer] We now ask Joe Mazzulla, Kristaps Porziņģis, Derrick White,
Al Horford, Jaylen Brown, and Jayson Tatum
to step forward and deliver tonight's ceremonial first pitch.
[crowd cheering]
[announcer] There they are, your 2024 world champion Boston Celtics.
[crowd applauding]
[Dave] Alex Cora's feeling pretty good about the Red Sox right now.
I don't think there's any question that they have overachieved,
given the preseason expectations and the number of injuries they've had,
and this is one of the big reasons why.
Jarren Duran has turned himself
into one of the better all-round players in baseball,
the way that he's playing right now.
They will face Chris Bassitt,
who had a good start against the Red Sox on Tuesday.
[Duran] What's up, boys?
-How you doing? -[Duran] Good. Perfect.
I feel like it's kinda fallen on me to… to be the leader.
I'll… I'll live and die for my teammates.
Like, I'll do anything it takes for my teammates.
Like, the team is more important than one person.
I think that's something, like, my dad instilled in me,
was not being a cocky little shit.
[Heineman] Damn, Duran has been on a fucking tear
since the last time I saw him.
Fucking 835 OPS. Last time I saw him, he was fucking 750.
[Cora] Come on, see it, kid. See it.
[Duran] I feel like, as a leader, like, I get nervous,
'cause it's like, if I'm not doing good, guys are gonna be like,
"Why would I listen to you? You're not even doing that good."
So, like, once again, I'm picking out the negatives to think about, but, um…
But, like, that's just how I am.
[Dave] Here's Duran.
He will take a called strike on a 93-mile-an-hour fastball.
-Come on, JD! -[Dave] Hitting almost .300.
He's got over 20 doubles. He's got ten triples to lead the Majors.
He's up, uh, on the leaderboard in stolen bases with 20.
[in Spanish] Whack that damn sinker the other way.
[in English] Swing it!
[Dave] The 0-2 is a well-hit ball to right field,
but back and into the alley is George Springer to make the catch.
One down.
-[Duran] Fuck! -[fans boo]
[Duran] I feel like people see us as zoo animals sometimes.
-[tense music plays] -[fans booing, jeering]
[man 2] You gotta wake up!
[Duran] 'Cause we're, like, in this big old cage.
Like, people are trying to, like, throw popcorn at you,
like, get a picture with you…
[indistinct shouting]
[Duran] …get your attention, like, scream your name. Like…
-[tense music continues] -[indistinct shouting]
[Duran] Sometimes some fans take it too serious.
[boo echoes]
I feel they cross the line when they start talking about, like, my mental health
and, like, making fun of me for that,
calling me weak.
It just triggered me when you started talking about mental health
'cause I was like, "All right, like…"
I feel like that's just, like, part of it,
is, like, that loneliness.
Like…
[muffled booing]
[Duran] …some people deal with it better than others.
[pensive, ethereal music plays]
[music fades out]
[director] Do you ever read papers? Do you ever read what's written about you?
[Duran] Nah.
I mean, my dad will shoot me a message or something every once in a while.
But they can be hard. That's just part of it.
I mean, that's what happens when you play in Boston.
It's a very sports-loving place, and they're… they're a winning city,
and they like to win, so they expect us to play our hardest and best every day.
I remember when I was going through it,
and, like, you start losing a couple of games,
and, like, you're not doing good,
like, it feels like the world's kinda creeping in on you.
They love you one day,
and then the next day, they gotta grind on you a little bit.
With me, it was always like, "Oh, okay." Like, "I wanted to prove you wrong."
Like, "I wanted to be better than what you're talking about me."
I feel like that comes from a lot of stuff.
It's like I wanted to make my dad proud of me.
[low, poignant music plays]
I remember, like, growing up, my dad was always hard on me.
He'd always push me to want to do better.
I was short. I was tiny. I was like 5'4" going into high school,
like 100 pounds soaking wet.
I remember my dad used to yell at me, like, "Why aren't you growing?"
I'm like, "I don't know. That's not my fault."
But at the same time, it was like,
"All right, I don't really like when my dad yells at me."
My dad, he was always working,
always busy, but, like, always trying to provide for us.
He always played sports,
and he was always, like, pushing me to be better.
I didn't understand when I was younger. I thought he was just being mean to me.
[Speier] His dad's like a… a mountain of a human being.
There was this kind of dissonance that people would experience
when they saw little Jarren kind of trailing behind his dad,
and, uh, Jarren described himself as…
He was like, "I get it. I'm the runt of the litter."
His dad was a big part of his coaching life.
There are these pictures
of the two of them holding this giant trophy that's as big as Jarren.
[man] I coached him since he was like five.
I was harder on Jarren than any of the other kids.
I expected more from him.
'Cause he would tell his mom, "Yeah, Dad's… is riding me. Why?"
And I'm like, "'Cause I want him to be, you know… be something special."
[woman] Octavio was… he was hard on Jarren.
And as a mom, we used to get in arguments about that because that's my baby.
And, you know, "Don't treat my baby that way," kind of thing.
But I think it made Jarren who he is today.
[Duran] Yeah, it was just, like, tough love.
Yeah, but I feel like everybody
has gone through that.
Especially, like, when they expect you to do good,
they always wanna be tough on you.
Like, there was a time where we were taking BP down at the park by my house.
And I wasn't swinging the best,
so he threw… he was throwing balls at me to hit me,
and be like, "Be better. Come on," and would peg me with the ball.
"You… you… you gotta do better. Gotta do better."
"It's not good enough. Not good enough. You gotta do better."
So that, to me, was, I think, the tough love between us,
that I always expected perfection from him.
[Duran] Of course, I was a kid, so I was, like, crying.
I ran home, gave my mom the tea.
"Dad's throwing the baseball at me." Like…
And so I went back to the park, and my dad's just sitting there.
He looks at me, goes, "I knew you were gonna come back."
I knew he'd come back
'cause he just didn't want to leave on that note, like, "I failed."
Like, the audacity to just stay there after you're hitting me with baseballs,
to think I was gonna come back.
But… honestly, I think, like, just wanted to be better for him
was, like, a thing for me too.
'Cause he was always hard on me, so I wanted to prove him wrong.
Like, "I can do this. I can do this, Dad." Like, "Look at this." Like…
So I feel like that was something that really drove me when I was younger.
-[crowd murmuring] -[music fades out]
[fan shouts indistinctly]
[Will] Fourth inning already. Toronto and the Sox, 0-0.
And up the middle for the very first hit of the ballgame.
Great reception by the Celtics here at Fenway tonight with the trophy.
-[Lou] Mm-hmm. -[Will] Which was just awesome.
What's sort of amazing about this run the Red Sox are on,
seven of eight, they've surged into the third wild card.
And it's really great, I think, as a region, as a city, and frankly,
for this Red Sox group to get the feeling of a championship back in the building.
[McDonough] Gonna bring up Justin Turner.
[Dave] Justin Turner, the former Red Sock.
[crowd applauds]
[Will] Fans remember him fondly for his one year in Boston.
[Heineman] Did you like, uh…
-Did you like Turner when he was here? -He's awesome.
-[Heineman] He's awesome? -Awesome.
-Good teammate, and he can hit. -[Heineman] Yeah.
[Dave] And this one is lined into left center for a base hit.
IKF around to score,
and the Turner RBI single gives the Blue Jays the lead.
[melodic, expectant music plays]
[music fades]
[Duran] Oh, there's my ginger.
-Hey, bud. -There he is.
[chuckles]
-Swing that thing last night, bro. -Thanks, man.
-[sighs] -[Justin] What's going on?
[Duran] Just grinding.
-How you doing? -Good grinding, though.
Yeah.
It's always a grind.
[Duran] As soon as I met Justin,
I was like, "This guy's gonna be a… a lifelong friend."
Like, he was definitely somebody
that when I was going through some tough stuff mentally,
that I opened up to and, like, talked to,
and he was there for me.
-How you doing? -[Justin] Good.
-[Duran] Yeah? -[Justin] Good.
[Duran] How's Mama?
-She's good, man. She's getting close. -Yeah?
[Justin] You know, we kinda had a little bit of a connection right away
because he's a SoCal guy,
and then, obviously, you're getting to know him and talk to him,
and you start hearing about some of the things he's going through,
and some of the things he's been through.
Dealing with anxiety, dealing with the pressure of this game.
-Yeah, we need this. -[Duran] Yeah.
It's all yours, bro.
-Duran's too big. He needs all this space. -Shut up.
-[man] He needs all that space? -All that space for his biceps.
[chuckling]
How's this stuff going? This stuff?
[chuckles]
[Duran] Yeah, they've definitely gotten some stuff.
-Yeah? -I remember one day, it was…
I can't remember where we were, but I was getting into it with a fan.
-Just my usual. -Oh, good.
I forgot I was miked up, and I was like, "Yeah, they definitely got those bits."
[laughs]
[fan shouts indistinctly]
-[Duran] Fuck you, pussy. -[Duran and Justin laugh]
[Justin] Oh man.
You have guys dropping like flies.
That's tough to deal with.
Yeah, and then we got a bunch of, like, young guys too,
like, still, like, taking their bumps and bruises
and learning and stuff like that.
-Kind of like how I had to go through. -Yeah.
So, like, that was, like, a big thing too.
[Justin] Funny hearing him talk about the young guys.
He's technically a young guy, but he's been through so much.
I think he's probably there for a lot of these "younger guys"
to help them go through some… some things that they're going through.
The swing looks good.
Probably because it looks like me, but…
I feel, like, athletic, which is, like…
What I really wanted to do is just let my athleticism take over.
Right. I feel like you're driving balls more to the pull side now than you were.
-Yeah. -You know what I mean?
-Yeah. -You're gonna have that in your pocket.
-Yeah. -Always.
You just can't get too far one way or the other.
[Duran] Mm-hmm.
Like, I feel like early against us up in Toronto,
you were, like, trying to guide stuff too much the other way.
Yeah.
Like, once you get back to the middle of the field…
-Yeah. I agree. -…it unlocks, you know?
What're you doing for All-Star break?
-I don't know. -Going to the All-Star game?
-[chuckles] I hope. -I tried to plug for you last week.
I did a couple of interviews with your guys and, like, Jahmai,
I'm like, "Dude… get out there and vote, bro."
-[chuckles] -"What's going on?" Like…
I'm in like 19th in outfield voting.
-[Justin] You're in 19th? -[Duran] Yeah.
-[Justin] Dougie's in front of you. -Yeah.
-[Justin] Come on, bro. -[Duran laughs]
-I miss you, man. I miss you a lot. -I miss you too.
Keep going. Keep doing your thing.
I'm in Kiké's old locker, and every day after the game,
Rob sits there and gets a little burby burbs.
-Yeah. -Drinks his drink.
And we shoot the shit in that corner. And we're like, "Damn."
All the time, we're like, "Dude, if JT was here, we'd be chopping it up."
I just gave Alex three bottles of tequila, so…
-Oh boy. -I know you don't drink, but, um…
-We went to that-- -Tell Rob to make sure he gets in there.
[Duran] I'll stick to my, uh, Coca-Cola after the game. That'll be my bourbon.
Yeah. Your leg… Don't… don't… don't be drinking, man.
-You… you run too hard for alcohol. -[chuckles]
Save them hammies.
-All right. Good luck tonight, dude. Yeah. -Thank you. You too.
[Will] Bottom half of the fourth inning,
as we come to you from the Monster's seats.
Toronto has grabbed a 1-0 lead.
And it'll be Duran at the top of the order.
[Dave] Jarren Duran lined out to right his first time up.
Lead-off hitter, some power, great speed, looking like an all-star.
[Andrew] Plenty of time, boys. Keep hitting it hard.
[Casas] Okay, I'm gonna guess one, and then you're gonna guess one.
What do you think?
-I think… I think… -[coach] Fastball.
-[Casas] Uh, I think slow. -[Cora] Good take!
[Casas] I did think fast though. I just wanted to agree with you.
Oh, let me guess. Good spin, high. High fastball.
[Casas] Yeah?
-[coach] Oh. -[Casas] Yeah. Yeah.
[Cora] Come on, JD!
[Andrew] Come on, JD!
[Duran] I'd say, like, when I first started playing T-ball
is when I really, like, kind of fell in love with this game.
I was always undersized,
so I guess baseball was just that equalizer for me
as being, like, a smaller kid.
Like, I could compete with these other kids,
and I didn't have to be the biggest or strongest.
He's a big boy now, but growing up, he was always the little guy, like I said,
so he always had to work extra hard to compete with them.
[Dena] He had that, like, "I'm a little guy" kind of mentality.
And that's been good for him
'cause he still had that chip on his shoulder.
Even in college, he always felt like he would be
up at 1:00 in the morning at the cages hitting.
Crazy stuff like that, you know, 'cause he felt like,
"Oh, somebody else is gonna be doing this, so I need to be doing this."
[Duran] I played football all the way up until high school.
I was always fast, I was always, like, the quick kid,
but I was… I was short, I was tiny.
I guess it was a blessing and a curse at the time, to be smaller than everybody.
Like, it made me the competitor I am now, always trying to work my hardest.
I was, like, one of the better kids.
Then, going into my senior year, I started getting looked at.
I think it's 'cause I grew a little bit finally.
Long Beach State came to visit me, and I was like, "I don't want to go."
"I don't think I'm good enough to go visit that school." Like…
So, like, it's always been a thing for me not, like, believing in myself. So…
But then I ended up going, and then,
when I was in college, I just continued to hit really good.
And I was like, "I've never hit like this before."
Like, "This will come to an end." Like, "Oh, this is a fluke. It'll end."
I mean, I was always the person that was like,
"If I start talking good about myself, then the game's gonna humble me,
and then I'm gonna start playing like crap, and…"
But that's just how, like… I'm just wired really weirdly.
That if I think positive about myself, something negative is gonna happen.
I mean, it's an everyday battle
to, like, tell myself, like, I should be proud of myself.
And I'm like, "Oh, this is too good to be true."
Like, "Oh, this will come to an end."
[Dave] And he's got a base hit into center.
First hit of the night for the Red Sox.
[Cora] Come on, Jarren.
[Lou] Duran hit hard, found a hole up the middle.
-He's jumping! He's jumping! -[Dave] Devers is next.
[Cora shouts in code]
[Heineman] Raffy, I don't know if he knows what he does.
He just knows he's really good. He sees the ball.
"I see ball. I hit the ball hard."
-Oh yeah! -[Dave] And this one, he got all of.
-[crowd cheering] -[uplifting music playing]
-[cheering lifts] -[man] Oh, he stood there the whole time.
[Dave] Like he had a feeling, and he just hammered it.
-[commentator] This one was center cut. -[Andrew] Fuck yeah!
-[commentator] That was a no-doubter. -[Andrew] Yeah, yeah!
-Yeah, yeah, yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! -[players cheering]
[Andrew] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! Whoo!
Let's fucking go!
[reporter 1] Red Sox select Jarren Duran
from Long Beach State University.
They said at first, "Oh, he's gonna go in the third or fourth round."
Well, those passed, and it was the seventh round.
[reporter 2] He doesn't have a lot of power, at least right now.
He's a guy that can stretch singles into doubles and do that little stuff
that you're always looking for out of a pick like right here.
He, again, felt like he had to prove something.
[Speier] He showed up in the Red Sox minor league system
and immediately started hitting triples like nobody else has ever hit triples.
[commentator 1] Jarren Duran is at third base.
[commentator 2] Wow. What speed. Man, he was flying around those bases.
And it was like, "What on earth is happening with this guy?"
Because he wasn't that highly touted a draft pick,
and you're realizing pretty quickly
that Jarren Duran is going to be a really good major league player.
Coming into 2021, he's looking like he may end up being
one of the best prospects in… in all of baseball,
and he's hitting the ball out of the park in Triple-A.
[commentator 3] Jarren Duran's gonna watch this one go.
How about that? What a way to start. First pitch. He tattooed that.
He's a seventh-round draft pick. Like, you're not supposed to be that good.
You're supposed to be okay as a seventh-round draft pick,
but now he's a top-20 prospect in all of baseball.
And he puts all this pressure on himself.
And he's like, "I have to be the next… you know, Mookie Betts."
My manager at the time, Billy McMillon, calls me, and he goes, "Hey."
"You're gonna go to the big leagues." And I was like, "What?"
[commentator 4] Well, finally, the big league debut
for the 24-year-old Jarren Duran.
[Barret] 2021, he comes up in mid-July, Yankee Stadium.
Fans were behind me yelling, you know, "Strike out the rookie!"
And I turned around and I said, "That's my baby."
And they were like, "Oh, I'm sorry, ma'am. Okay, he can get a hit." [chuckles]
[commentator 4] He makes his debut,
and on the first pitch that he sees as a big leaguer,
he rips a base hit into center.
His dad, Octavio, his mom, Dena, other family members in attendance.
What a moment for Duran.
[Barret] He gets a hit off Gerrit Cole, You think, "This is it. It's done."
Like, "Here he goes." And drafted. You know, he was a second baseman.
He was a little skinny guy, and… and he hit different, and, um…
the Red Sox said, "You gotta go play outfield."
[Will] Duran all the way back, still back, still back to the wall,
leaping, can't get it.
They drafted him with the idea that they would be able
to stick him in the outfield and let him run around a little bit more,
um, and also tap into a little bit more of his athleticism.
But from an approach standpoint, he… he probably wasn't ready.
[commentator 5] Mateo, base hit right field.
Center ball, lollipop throw from Duran.
[Duran] When I went to the outfield, felt like a different planet.
In the infield, you're not really seeing balls in the air.
But guys are hitting the ball 100-plus miles an hour at you in the outfield,
and the ball can, like, soar past you.
The wind, the dimensions, like, the way the ball just flies over there,
like, I was just very, like, raw.
He had a hard time adjusting because he's never played the outfield.
He had to learn it in the major leagues.
[Duran] Everything's more difficult to do at the big league level.
You know, I just… I tried my best, put my hand up, I had my glasses on,
tried to get the angle, but… I'm just right in the middle of the sun.
You think that you're alone out there when stuff like that happens.
[pensive music playing]
I remember when I first started struggling,
I was like…
"Just send me back down."
It honestly felt like there was, like, a dark cloud over me,
'cause it's so easy to look past the positive things for me,
and then to grab onto the negative things.
[Cora] He's a good kid that has a good heart.
A few years ago, we were… we needed to be very patient with him,
because he wasn't feeling comfortable around this, right?
Around Red Sox Nation.
[Will] He appears to be going back and forth with fans out there. He is.
I just think there's the self-doubt and the, "Do I belong?"
"Am I really good enough to be here?" "How did I get here?"
I think that's… He starts thinking those thoughts.
[commentator 6] You're continuing to work that young kid, Jarren Duren…
Duran, excuse me, out there.
Oh man.
He's having a rough afternoon.
He had all this baggage about not wanting to be a failure.
[pensive music continues]
-[Dave] So 2-1 Red Sox, top of the fifth. -[music fades out]
And it'll be Addison Barger, Davis Schneider, and Alejandro Kirk.
Barger grounded out his first time up.
[Duran] Come on, Tanner.
[Cora] Rip it.
[suspenseful music plays]
[Dave] Watched him a lot in batting practice.
He was hitting a lot of balls to left-center field.
[Cora] Attaboy! [clapping]
-Keep going! -[Andrew] Come on, T. Come on, baby.
-[Cora] Ouch. -[Will] That was swatted foul by Barger.
He's 0-1 with a tapper to third.
-[Andrew] Come on, Tanner. -[Cora] You want him to swing.
[suspenseful music continues]
[Dave] To center field, hit pretty well.
And back all the way, looping up against the wall, and caught!
-What a great play out in center field… -Yeah, Dory!
[Dave] …by Jarren Duran,
taking extra bases away from Barger.
[Lou] What a play.
[Will] Outstanding play by the man who oughta be
the American League Player of the Week.
Are you serious with this guy, Lou? It's every night now.
-Every night. -[Lou] It is unbelievable.
[McDonough] One of the best center fielders in the game,
Jarren Duran continues to do it.
[fans cheer, whistle]
[crowd] ♪ If they don't win It's a shame ♪
♪ For it's one, two Three strikes, you're out at the… ♪
[Dave] Top of the seventh already here in this one.
The Red Sox leading the Blue Jays 2-1, and how about Tanner Houck?
He gets so deep into the game every single time out.
Come on, Tanner.
[Will] Now this is Barger, 0-2. He's grounded out, and he's flied out.
And pretty much swings out of his shoes every time.
[Lou] Big boy.
Come on, Tanner!
-[Will] Houck throws his 90th pitch. -[Cora] Cuidado!
And a slider scatters the Red Sox dugout.
[Andrew] Whoo! Holy fuckballs.
That's a large man that hit that.
Come on, Tanner!
Come on, T. Come on, baby. Triage yourself.
[Will] So 3-2.
-[commentator] Oh, catcher's interference. -[Andrew] What?
-[Heineman] Interference. -[Will] Gonna send him to first.
-[Lou] You could hear that one. -[Will] Mm-hmm.
[Lou] Barger's bat hitting the glove of McGuire.
[Tanner muttering angrily]
-Should be out. -[Andrew] Goddamn it, man.
[Will] So on catcher's interference,
they've got a base runner to begin the seventh.
[Cora] Oh shit.
What the fuck are we playing? God damn it.
[Andrew] Come on, Tanner.
-[player] Come on, T. Come on. -His slide is flat right now.
[Dave] Pitch number 100 coming up now for Tanner Houck.
Right-hander Isaiah Campbell is now up in the bullpen.
[commentator] He's got a great… I mean, that is a great Fu Manchu.
[Cora] Come on, Tanner. Come on, kid. Make a pitch.
[Andrew] Ground ball right here. Let's go.
[Will] Kiermaier, the batter.
[Cora] Come on, Tanner. Come on, Tanner.
[Dave] And this time, he lines it up the middle, a base hit.
And Barger is going to come in to score, and this game is tied.
[crowd cheering]
[tense music plays]
[Will] And here comes the manager.
And he has had Campbell going in the pen.
[Andrew] I don't know if he's gonna go or not. Yeah, he's going.
[Will] And the night is over for the Red Sox staff ace, Tanner Houck.
Attaboy. Way to throw the ball. Way to throw the ball.
Fucking bitch.
[Cora] Hey, kid, welcome back. Do your thing.
Make sure you slow him down at first, okay?
Let's go. Do your thing. Let's go.
[Dave] So the Blue Jays have tied it, and Alex Cora has gone to his bullpen
for right-hander Isaiah Campbell.
First batter he'll face tonight is Isiah Kiner-Falefa.
-[Cora] Come on, kid. Make a pitch. -[Andrew] Come on. Make a fucking pitch.
[Cora] Ah.
[Dave] Softly hit to the right side from shallow right, a high throw.
Kiner-Falefa is safe, and Kiermaier will come to third.
[Will] And a little looper on the infield,
and Toronto catching a break, first and third.
-[Tanner groans] -[downcast music plays]
[Dave] And it's runners on the corners with two down.
[Cora] Come on. Vamos, vamos. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
[Will] So first and third for Guerrero.
-[Dave] And Vladi launches one. -[crowd cheers]
Deep left field and gone.
[Red Sox fans booing]
[Dave] It disappears into the Boston night.
A booming three-run homer for Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
[Blue Jays fans cheering]
[Will] And Toronto grabs a 6-2 lead here in the seventh inning,
as this one came apart in a hurry.
[Duran] This game's gonna humble everybody at some point.
This game is just too hard not to humble somebody.
I started thinking about when I debuted…
[Will] And it brings up the rookie, Jarren Duran.
Swing and a miss, strike three.
[Duran] …and, like, how I felt like I was just on a fricking island
all by myself, and the world was falling apart beneath my feet.
[woman] Duran's so fast if he can get on base,
but it seems like it's been a struggle lately.
[Sean] This is a draining game. It demands a lot of you mentally.
Jarren has been so consumed with not letting people down,
whether it be the team that drafted him
or his family.
That can be a lot to deal with,
no matter how much raw physical talent and tools you have.
[commentator 1] Duran trying to locate it.
[commentator 2] Duran has no idea where this ball is.
-None whatsoever. -[commentator 1] Wow.
I missed a fly ball in center field.
'Cause I lost it in the twilight, and it landed behind me.
[commentator 1] Tapia to the plate.
And it is a grand slam inside the park. Wow.
[Bill Burr] Hey, what's going on? This is Bill Burr. I'm at Fenway Park,
where you hit inside-the-park home runs
'cause people lose it in the lights.
[Duran] I didn't even wanna turn around. I was afraid to look at fans.
When failure occurred for him in the big leagues,
he didn't have that solid foundation to know, like, "This is okay."
"It's okay to struggle. I'm going to work through that."
I remember, like, being at the stadium and hearing my name called,
and they would boo.
I'm like, "Damn."
Or I'd go to, like, center field, they'd be like,
"You don't belong here. Go back to Triple-A."
At Fenway.
They didn't know how hard I was trying.
[Dena] You know, New York, Boston, LA, it's like,
"Bring in the next guy."
"Okay, this guy's not doing it. Get rid of him."
They don't think of them as people
and how hard they've worked to get where they're at.
And they were just like, "He sucks. He sucks."
You know, and he had to be in the outfield listening to them yell behind him,
"You suck, Jarren."
-[crowd chants] You suck! -[fans shouting]
-[crowd] You suck! -[man shouting angrily]
[voice breaking] As a mom, it's just like every at-bat is,
"Oh, please, God, let him get a hit." "Please, God, let him catch that ball."
It's torture.
[commentator 2] It's a tough one today. Look at him. He's not happy.
He's jawing with a fan up there.
You know, he's letting the game get to him.
[Barret] To feel it from the fans and, like, to feel it on social media
and in the crowd, and then he goes home to an apartment…
You know, he's alone.
He's… There's no family here. There's no girlfriend.
There's no wife. There's no fian… You know, there's no kids.
It's just him and his thoughts, and that's a… you know…
At the time, it was a scary place to be.
But if Jarren Duran misplays a ball in the sun, and you're like,
"Hey, Duran, catch the next one," and he turns around, "I'll kill ya!"
Like, this… this guy, he's lost it.
-He has. -He's absolutely lost it.
[Duran] And I would think every day, like, "I can't fucking do this."
I couldn't deal with… telling myself how much I sucked every fucking day.
Like, I was already hearing it from fans.
And, like, what they say to me,
it's like, I haven't told myself ten times worse than that in the mirror.
[bat thuds]
That was, like, a really, uh, tough time for me.
Yeah.
[man 1] Jarren Duran, who's proving to be one of the worst fielders
in the entire game right now.
You're Jarren Duran. You kind of just suck in the MLB.
Like, I'm sorry to say it.
[man 2] This is just another classic case of a prospect coming up
and not meeting expectations.
You wanna help this ball club,
Duran needs to go back to Triple-A and figure himself out.
[Duran] It was a pretty low time for me. Like, I didn't even wanna be here anymore.
But, um…
[director] When you say "here,"
you mean here with the Red Sox or here on planet earth?
Um…
Probably both. Yeah.
Probably both. That was, like, a really, uh, tough time for me.
Yeah.
I got to the point where I was sitting in my room.
I had my, um… my rifle,
and I had a bullet, and…
I pulled the trigger and the gun clicked, but nothing happened.
So… to this day, like, I think
God just didn't let me take my own life,
because I seriously don't know, like, why it didn't go off.
But I took it
as a sign of, like, "All right, I might have to be here for a reason."
So then that's when I started to look myself in the mirror.
After the gun didn't go off, I was like, "All right, well, like, let's…"
I was like, "Do I wanna be here, or do I not wanna be here?"
Like, I looked myself in the mirror, and I was like,
"That happened for a reason. Like…"
"Obviously, you're fucking here for a reason."
"So, like, let's fucking…"
"Let's fucking be the way you wanna be. Let's play the way you wanna play."
"And let's, you know, just live the way I wanna live."
[director] Have you talked about this with people you're close to?
Like, for instance, your dad or your mom?
[breathes deeply]
I don't think I've told them the full extent like that.
I know eventually I need to sit down with them and tell them the whole story.
It's just… it's scary to me because I don't…
I hate putting my parents through stuff like that.
It's hard to see them get upset when I tell them,
and it just makes me feel like a bad person.
I don't wanna burden other people with my problems.
[director] A heavy burden to carry.
Yeah. God gave me a good back, so I'm carrying it pretty well. [chuckles]
["Wave of Mutilation" by Pixies plays]
[man] Morning. Welcome back to the Fenway Rundown.
We're gonna get into
Jarren Duran opening up on the mental toll of struggling in the majors.
You know, he… he opened up.
And we talked about all the different things he's been through,
you know, in the last couple of months.
You know, some of the quotes, "I've been pretty low this year."
"It's been a struggle to stay here."
"I try so hard to please everybody
so when I hear people bad-mouthing me and they're home fans,
I take it to heart."
"I just ask for forgiveness whenever I don't do what they ask me to do."
"I'm trying my best, and I just hope they know that."
I just wanna commend Jarren Duran on speaking up.
It's not an easy thing to do, and, um, wish him the best.
♪ Cease to resist, giving my goodbye… ♪
[Duran] On my left wrist, I write "fuck 'em,"
'cause it's me telling my demons, like, "Fuck you."
Like, "You're not gonna faze me."
And then, on my right wrist, I write "still alive,"
'cause I'm still here, and I'm still fighting.
♪ You'll think I'm dead, but I sail away ♪
♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey ♪
We're gonna win this, boys. Here we go. Come on. Come on.
♪ On a wave of mutilation… ♪
-Please, God. -[Will] Toronto has the 6-2 lead.
Getting late.
-[Cora] Go, boys. -[Andrew] Come on.
[Will] Red Sox in real need of an answer here from Duran.
♪ Wave… ♪
[Will] He'll get another pop-up here.
Berger and Kiner-Falefa will not make the play.
-And Duran is gonna get to second. -[crowd cheers]
He was running hard the whole way.
[Lou] That's exactly why you hustle every single time.
[Cora] That's how you play the game. Just like that.
-Fucking pop-up double. -Double.
This is where it gets interesting.
[suspenseful music plays]
[Dave] David Hamilton, the batter, 0-3.
[Cora] Fling it!
-[Red Sox players] Oh! -[Dave] And he hit right. Well hit.
-And it is gone. -[crowd cheers]
[Cora] Let's go!
[Dave] And just like that, it is a two-run game.
[fans cheering, whistling]
[Cora] Let's go, baby. Way to fucking play the game.
[Andrew] Hell yeah, hell yeah.
-[Heineman] Needed that? You deserve that. -[Duran chuckles]
You fucking deserve that. That's for damn sure.
[Dave] So Nate Pearson, out of the game, gives up the two-run homer.
It is 6-4 with two outs and the bases empty.
[Will] And here comes Mazza to take on Rafael Devers.
Red Sox with a two-run homer from David Hamilton to jump back in it…
-[Cora] Swing it! -[Andrew] Swing that shit.
[Dave] And softly hit into center, a base hit.
-[rousing music plays] -[Andrew] Let's go, TO.
[Dave] O'Neill is going to come up as the tying run.
[Lou] This is the matchup you did not want.
The always dangerous Tyler O'Neill.
[commentator] You got a big boy up here with 15 homers, got full power,
and this could be scary.
[Will] Into center field. On the approach, here's Kiermaier.
-He can't get it. -[Cora] Hey!
-[crowd cheering] -[Will] Devers taking off for third.
He'll stop there.
O'Neill into second.
[Cora] Yes!
[Will] Kiermaier did not make the play, and the Red Sox are in business.
Second and third with two down.
[Dave] And it's the noisiest it's been all night here at Fenway.
[Will] With two down at the bottom of the eighth inning,
the Celtics remaining on hand to watch.
And that'll bring on Romy González.
-Swinging at the first pitch. -[cheering erupts]
He lines it into the outfield.
-One run is in. Two runs are in. -[fan cheering]
-[Andrew] Let's fucking go! -[Will] This game is tied.
-[raucous cheering] -[overlapping indistinct shouting]
[Will] Oh, this place is rocking.
[Lou] Rocking right now.
[cheering fades]
[director] His mental health struggles, when did you first learn about them?
[Octavio] Probably when he had that really bad season.
[director] Did he talk to you about his depression?
No, not really. He just doesn't really… bring that up.
I don't… I don't push him to it, and he just doesn't bring it up.
[director] Do you wish he would?
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
For sure.
This was new to us and… scary.
And you don't want your child to feel that way, to feel not worthy,
to feel like they shouldn't be here.
But I'm proud of how he's reacted to it.
[poignant music plays]
He's hitting it head on.
That's how he does things though. Always has.
[Barret] Early on, he wasn't opening up, and it was tough for me,
tough for his parents, and it's like, "What do we do? How do we help him?"
And since then, he's started journaling
and really doing, like, just self-examination
to say, like, "This is not the end all, be all."
That is what really has brought him to, like, not live and die on this field
and what happens tonight, tomorrow, or last night.
[Duran] I used to, like, ramble and just write,
but now I've prioritized my journaling
to figure out, like, why I feel certain ways.
This book talks about, like, affirmations, and this one's a good one.
It goes, "I am worthy of success
and celebrate my achievements, no matter how small."
[director] Do you have any regrets?
Is there anything you would do differently with him?
I should've separated baseball and the personal
when it came to our relationship.
And that was my fault, and I… now I see that.
[Speier] He got to a healthier place
with regards to his balance, uh, between baseball and life,
and his production followed.
-Attaboy, Dory! Fuck! -Let's go, kid!
I had a breakout year last year.
-[crowd cheers] -[Will] And it's off the pole and gone.
Jarren Duran with a home run.
Going into the season of '23, I was like,
"All right… I'm gonna do what I want for my swing."
I just know what makes me better.
[Speier] By the time he came around in 2023,
he had first become more open about discussing
the kind of internal struggles he had faced.
He also was able to recalibrate a little bit, I think,
when he played for Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic.
[uplifting music plays]
[Duran] That was some of the funnest baseball I've played.
Just baseball lovers playing against other baseball lovers, and it was sick.
-[crowd cheers] -[commentator] Duran scores!
[Duran] I got to act like a little kid.
Just every base hit,
I got to jump out of the dugout like it was Game 7 World Series,
and with a sombrero on to add.
-[music fades] -[cheering subsides, fades out]
Taking joy in competing,
um, maybe tapped into something for Jarren Duran.
[Will] This is one of those special Fenway nights,
and the Red Sox have the Celtics on their feet.
Joe Mazzulla had the O'Brien Trophy held up above his head,
trying to will these Sox to a magical win.
-[Cora] Let's go. Let's go. -[Andrew] Hell yeah. Let's go, boys!
[Will] And we're all locked up, 6-6, bottom of the ninth, and here we go.
The speed guys coming up for the Red Sox,
Rafaela, Duran, and Hamilton.
Three of the fastest guys in the American League.
[Andrew] Oh, I would fucking love it.
[Will] Rafaela bunts at it, and it's strike one.
-Stay humble. Here we go! -[Will] Duran on deck.
Swing and a ground ball up the middle to the second baseman. Gloves.
-[Cora] Yeah! -[Dave] He can't make the play!
-[crowd cheers] -[Will] Rafaela beats it out.
And the Red Sox have the winning run aboard to begin the ninth.
-[Rafaela] Nice. -[Will] That speed is just a killer.
Fucking beautiful.
-[suspenseful music plays] -[fans whistle]
[Will] But here's the Red Sox's hottest hitter
with a chance to win the game.
[umpire] That's a balk!
[Will] Pitch to him is…
That's a balk!
-A balk? Is that a balk? Yes, it is! -[players] Yeah!
-Let's go! -[Andrew] He's fucking rattled!
He shit-fucked it!
[Lou] You know what? The clock was running down.
[Will] So he had to hurry.
[Lou] He started, tried to hurry, and he never came to a stop.
[Will] And the Red Sox have the winning run at second base
here in the ninth inning, on a balk after an error.
-[cheering, clapping] -[whistle blows]
[in Spanish] Let him bat.
[suspenseful music continues]
[commentator in English] This is who I want up in this situation.
If they're gonna challenge him and go after him, this might sting 'em.
[Andrew] You gotta walk him, right?
[in Spanish] Let him bat. Let him bat.
[in English] Attaboy!
[crowd clapping]
[tense electronic music plays]
Rock it in the gap. Rock it in the gap.
[Will] 1-1, the pitch is high.
Hamilton, who gave the Red Sox the two-run homer in the eighth,
he's on deck.
[Cora in Spanish] If it's a walk,
get to Hamilton quickly, and tell him to hit it
so the pitcher can field it.
Okay? To the right of the pitcher.
-[tense music continues] -[fans cheering]
[Dave in English] The Red Sox threatening to walk it off.
-["Wave of Mutilation" by Pixies plays] -That's it. That's a base hit!
Here comes Rafaela rounding, trying to score, the ball home.
-And he wins it! -[cheering erupts]
[Duran] Let's go!
Ball game over! Duran, the hero!
[players cheering]
[Will] Jarren Duran, his first career walk-off for the Sox.
They're in the win column.
♪ Cease to resist, giving my goodbye ♪
♪ Drive my car… ♪
-[Ramón] Let's fucking go! Vamos! -♪ Into the ocean… ♪
[in English] Fuck yeah, JD. Fuck yeah, baby. You're the man.
-[overlapping jubilant chatter] -♪ On a wave of mutilation… ♪
-[crowd cheering] -♪ Wave of mutilation ♪
♪ Wave of mutilation ♪
♪ Wave… ♪
-[Duran] Whoo! -That's cold.
-I don't know what it comes from… -[music fades]
…but I just never feel like I'm that good.
I don't know. It's just like these inner demons that don't let me
love myself or wanna be proud of myself.
That's still something I'm working on.
You were great. Absolutely great.
And the play? How's your back?
-Dude, I feel like up here… -You gotta be scratched up.
-[woman] Can we have your autograph? -[Barret] That was a great play.
Every once in a while, I'll catch myself being proud of myself,
and I'm like, "Damn. This is a good feeling."
-I'll let you know. See you, man. -[Duran] Love you. Thank you.
[Barret chuckles] So proud of you.
Yeah. Couple more coming.
-Yeah. -[Barret chuckles]
[boy 1] Duran, please!
I gotta go. I'm sorry.
[boy 2] You're the best player in the MLB.
[Barret chuckles]
But the demons always come back and… and bring me back to earth,
so that's still something I'm working on.
[reflective blues guitar music plays]
[music continues]
[music fades out]
[earth skitters]
[child giggles]
-[gull calling] -[waves lapping]
[clicking]
-[commentator] Number 23. -[crowd cheers]
[strings stab]
[cheering fades]