Jarren Duran had spent most of Tuesday night searching for a hit. By the 11th inning, the Red Sox were searching for a way to avoid giving away a game they should have already won.
One swing solved both problems as Duran crushed a grand slam with one out in the 11th, breaking a 3-3 tie and lifting the Red Sox to a wild 7-3 victory over the Marlins at LoanDepot Park.
The 412-foot, 105-mph blast was Duran’s second career grand slam and completed Boston’s fifth consecutive victory. The Red Sox improved to 73-59 overall and 39-27 on the road while dropping Miami to 67-66.
Duran entered the at-bat 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and had only two hits in his previous 12 at-bats dating back to Saturday.
With Wilyer Abreu beginning the 11th at second as the automatic runner, Willson Contreras reached on an infield single before Jahmai Jones walked. After an out, Duran unloaded to right-center and turned a tie game into a four-run lead.
“It felt good, man. I felt like it was like a 100-pound weight lifted off my shoulders,” Duran told NESN’s Jahmai Webster postgame. “I felt like all night I’ve had opportunities to do something for the team and having the pitchers keep us in it and giving me the opportunity to do that is awesome.”
The grand slam also erased the frustration of an ugly 10th inning in which Boston had been one strike away from winning.
Rookie Wyatt Olds appeared to finish the game when he struck out Javier Sanoja with two outs and the Red Sox leading 3-2. But the pitch got away from catcher Connor Wong, allowing automatic runner Brian Navarreto to race home with the tying run.
It was Boston’s second costly mistake of the inning. Andruw Monasterio had already made an errant throw to first after fielding Otto Lopez’s leadoff grounder, putting two runners aboard with nobody out.
With Aroldis Chapman unavailable after pitching on consecutive days and three times in four days, Alec Gamboa eventually induced a groundout to drag Boston into the 11th.
The dramatic finish to the game overshadowed another remarkable performance from Mickey Gasper, whose unexpected power surge continued.
Gasper reached in all four of his plate appearances, going 2-for-2 with two homers and two walks. He has now reached safely in all eight of his plate appearances through the first two games of the series.
His first homer, a 394-foot shot to center in the second, gave Boston a 1-0 lead. After Miami tied it, Gasper struck again in the sixth, blasting a 418-foot homer to center to make it 2-1.
Since being recalled from Triple-A Worcester on Aug. 16, Gasper is 10-for-21 with five home runs, three doubles, 12 RBI, six walks and only one strikeout.
The Marlins answered Gasper’s second homer immediately when Heriberto Hernández led off the bottom of the sixth by taking Payton Tolle deep for a 403-foot solo shot, tying the game at 2-2 and ending what had begun as another dominant performance by the rookie left-hander.
Tolle retired 12 of the first 13 hitters he faced and carried a no-hitter into the fifth before Xavier Edwards doubled to lead off the inning. Brian Navarreto eventually tied the game with a sacrifice fly after battling Tolle through a 10-pitch at-bat.
