Jarren Duran steals home, Red Sox beat Guardians to split doubleheader

With his game-breaking speed it was only a matter of time before Jarren Duran tried to steal home Saturday night the stars definitively aligned Standing at third base with Cleveland Guardians left-hander Doug Nikhazy s back turned Duran took a huge lead and broke for home right as the pitcher began his windup He was practically at the plate by the time the ball even reached catcher Bo Naylor and he was able to slide his hand across just ahead of the tag JARREN DURAN STEALS HOME pic twitter com mnWJPQ HUR MLB MLB April The call was upheld on review giving Duran the club s first straight steal of home since Jacoby Ellsbury pulled off the feat exactly years ago to the day against Andy Pettitte and the New York Yankees on April Duran went for with three runs and two RBI in the challenge including an RBI triple this instant preceding his big steal to help the Red Sox beat the Guardians - in the second battle of Saturday s doubleheader The win also snapped Boston s three-game losing streak and put the club in position to win the series on Sunday Following the event Duran described NESN s Jahmai Webster that he and third base coach Kyle Hudson noticed Nikhazy was pitching from the windup even with the runner on third so they decided Duran should go on the next pitch before the rookie had a chance to make the adjustment and pitch from the stretch Once he went Duran had no doubts I knew I had it Duran reported When it went to review I didn t think they were going to overturn it because the way I slid and the way I got in I knew I had it for sure Like in Saturday afternoon s loss the Red Sox scored first and built up a solid early lead only this time they were able to make the lead hold up Trevor Story broke out of his for slump with an RBI single in the top of the first to break the ice and the Red Sox scored three times with two outs in the top of the second to extend their lead to - Duran drove in the first of those with an RBI single Rafael Devers added an RBI double and Rob Refsnyder drew a walk with the bases loaded to finish the rally The Red Sox extended the lead to - in the third thanks to Duran s heroics but the Guardians had a counterpunch up their sleeve Walker Buehler who d held Cleveland scoreless through the first three innings gave up three runs in the fourth on an Angel Martinez RBI single and a two-run home run by Jhonkensy Noel That was pretty much the only blemish on Buehler s day The veteran right-hander went six innings and allowed three runs on seven hits and a walk with three strikeouts for his third quality start of the season Nikhazy the Guardians starter was making his MLB debut and allowed six runs on six walks and five hits over three innings Boston extended its lead again after Duran Devers and Alex Bregman strung together three straight singles to lead off the sixth Bregman s ball was weakly hit and should have been a double play but the Guardians botched a behind-the-back flip attempt at second leaving all runners safe and allowing Duran to amount to make it - The bullpen took care of business from there Justin Wilson threw a scoreless seventh Justin Slaten a scoreless eighth and Aroldis Chapman finished the job in the ninth firing in fastballs of and mph on his last two pitches of the event The former marked the fastest pitch by a Red Sox pitcher in the Statcast era latest his own record of mph set last Saturday at Fenway Park Brayan Bello - will get the ball for Boston in Sunday s series finale against Cleveland s Logan Allen - First pitch is scheduled for p m