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Jarren Duran does it all to fuel 4-3 Red Sox comeback over Reds

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Jarren Duran does it all to fuel 4-3 Red Sox comeback over Reds


With the Red Sox, expect the unexpected. They barely eked out a series split against the lowly White Sox, when they should’ve swept or at least won the series. Then, they won series against the first-place Phillies and Yankees at Fenway. A series between Boston, the American League’s stolen base leader, and the Reds and Elly De La Cruz, who lead the Majors? Just one steal per team over the first two games of the weekend.

One thing everyone’s come to expect, however, is greatness from Jarren Duran. The Red Sox leadoff man has consistently proven himself every which way this season, bringing lightning speed on the bases, scorching extra-base hits, and jaw-dropping defense to a team that desperately needs it all.

Duran had his full arsenal on display Saturday, propelling the Red Sox to a stunning 4-3 comeback victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday evening. He went 2-for-4 with a strikeout and a gutsy run scoring effort. Over a now-12-game hitting streak, he’s batting .385 with a 1.054 OPS, seven extra-base hits, seven RBI, and five stolen bases. For good measure, he moved from left- to center-field late in the game, then proceeded to make a game-saving home-run robbery.

“Jarren Duran is an All-Star,” Rob Refsnyder raved to NESN’s Jahmai Webster. “Unbelievable ballplayer. When he goes, our team goes.”

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Ultimately, it was Duran’s day from the start (he led off with a single). But for the first six innings, the game seemed to belong Frankie Montas. Even though he didn’t rack up strikeouts, the Reds starter – and former Red Sox pitching prospect – was able to stymie an offense that had arrived in town on a blazing hot streak. The Boston bats had looked hot early in Friday night’s series opener, too, when Duran and Connor Wong clobbered a pair of solo homers. But the Sox failed to score – and barely hit – after the third inning on Friday, and struggled to get going against Montas for most of Saturday.

It was home-run weather in Cincinnati on Saturday, too, but Montas kept Boston grounded. While Reds batters put the ball in the air frequently, their starter induced seven groundouts to zero flyouts. After Duran’s leadoff knock in the first, Montas didn’t allow another hit until Rafael Devers’ two-out single in the fourth.

Seven Red Sox players – Devers, Duran, Wong, Wilyer Abreu, Tyler O’Neill, Rob Refsnyder, and Triston Casas (injured list) – entered the day with OPS above .800 (min. 75 plate appearances), the most for any team in the Majors, but it was Dom Smith who finally broke up the Montas monotony with a big knock in the fifth. His third home run of the year put Boston on the board, and at 419 feet to center, would remain the farthest-hit ball of the game.

With one out in the sixth, Montas’ pitch count sat at a mere 59 and he’d held Boston to three hits. However, the third at-bat was a charm for Abreu, who was back in the lineup after missing 16 games with a right-ankle sprain; after grounding into a double play in the first and grounding out again in the fourth, the rookie lined a double to deep center. He quickly came around to score when Wong made it back-to-back doubles, bringing the Red Sox within one and extending his own hitting streak to 12 games.

Montas was able to get two outs to prevent further damage, and with his pitch count only at 72 after the sixth, it was a surprise when Sam Moll took the mound for the seventh, instead. Both teams would end up needing several bullpen arms – 12 pitchers took the mound overall – though Cincinnati’s starter lasted significantly longer. With Sunday scheduled to be a bullpen game and no day off before the Blue Jays and Red Sox meet at Fenway on Monday evening, Alex Cora was looking for a deep outing from Nick Pivetta. Instead, Saturday became a bullpen game, too. Due to a combination of long balls and too-long at-bats, Pivetta lasted just 4.1 innings. He allowed three earned runs on six hits, including a pair of homers by Spencer Steer and Elly De La Cruz, issued one walk, and struck out five. But unlike Montas, Pivetta induced airballs, a 3-5 groundout-to-flyout ratio.

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“Today was a grind for Nick,” Cora confirmed.

Pivetta left a mess behind for Brennan Bernardino, but the ever-reliable southpaw managed to clean it up. The Reds may be MLB’s leaders in steals, but their running game is far from clean, and the Red Sox were able to capitalize on their mistakes. The bottom of the fifth ended with De La Cruz picked off and caught stealing third. When Nick Martini reached first on a dribbling bunt in the sixth, Wong was able to easily tag Jake Fraley out at home for the second out of the sixth.

Greg Weissert, Cam Booser, Zack Kelly, and Chris Martin followed Bernardino, and held down a feisty Reds lineup to keep Boston in the game. Kelly extended his no-hit streak to 31 batters; over nine innings in June, opponents are 0-for-27 against him.

Before Saturday, the Red Sox were 2-31 when trailing after seven innings. But in the eighth, they finally met a Reds pitcher they could hit. Ceddanne Rafaela and Duran greeted Justin Wilson with back-to-back singles. Two of the fastest runners in Majors stood on the corners, and Refsnyder had no intention of wasting the opportunity. Pinch-hitting for Abreu, the veteran utilityman tied the game with the third consecutive single.

The Reds made another pitching change, but with Devers on deck and Duran on third, the outcome seemed inevitable. As Devers whacked a shallow flyout, Duran raced home and dove headfirst into Boston’s first lead of the series.

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“Not many people would even think about running that third base with how shallow that (flyout) was,” Refsnyder said. “Jarren’s just doing it all: offense, defense, base-running. He’s having a really special first half, and I hope he gets rewarded with an All-Star Game.”

The Red Sox were able to protect, but not increase their lead before Kenley Jansen took the mound for the bottom of the ninth. And when Stuart Fairchild came up to bat with one out and blasted a ball 408 feet to center, the game should’ve been tied.

Instead, Duran leapt up and – in defiance of the blinding early-evening sunlight – snatched the home run, and the game, back for the Red Sox. Jansen then worked around a two-out single and got De La Cruz to fly out for the win. His 434th career save moves him ahead of ex-Sox closer Craig Kimbrel for sole possession of fifth all-time.

But ask anyone who saved this game, and they’ll answer: Jarren Duran.



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Boston, MA

2024-25 Boston College Men’s Hockey Player Profile: Gentry Shamburger

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2024-25 Boston College Men’s Hockey Player Profile: Gentry Shamburger


The Boston College Eagles men’s hockey team kicks off its season on Friday, Oct. 11 against Michigan State in East Lansing, Mich. 

As the season draws closer, we’re taking a look and profiling each member of the 2024-25 roster. Up next is forward Gentry Shamburger.

Shamburger is entering his fifth season with the Eagles. During his time in Chestnut Hill, he has appeared in 83 games and tallied two goals and one assist for three points. In his sophomore campaign, he won 26 faceoffs and blocked 13 shots.

Prior to joining the Eagles, the 23-year-old spent four seasons with the USHS-Prep program Avon Old Farms School (2016-20) where he appeared in 106 games and tallied ten goals and 24 assists for 34 points. During the 2018-19 season, he recorded the third-most assists (ten) and tied for the sixth-most points on the team. 

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Other stints during his hockey career include the TPH Thunder 14U AAA (2014-15) and 16U AAA (2015-16) teams as well as the Buffalo Regals 18U AAA (2017-18) and the Mid Fairfield Rangers 18U AAA (2018-19) teams. 

Name: Gentry Shamburger

Hometown: Atlanta, Ga. 

Year: Graduate

Position: Forward

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Number: 14

Shoots: R

Measurements: 6’1” 203 lbs

This is an ongoing series from Boston College Eagles On SI. Check out the rest of the men’s hockey Player Profile series here: Eamon Powell | Jacob Fowler | Nolan Joyce | Teddy StigaDrew Fortescue | Aidan Hreschuk | Lukas Gustafsson | Ryan Leonard James Hagens Michael Hagens | Mike Posma.



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Young Red Sox starters have shown they can handle a full season’s grind

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Young Red Sox starters have shown they can handle a full season’s grind


For the last few years one of the biggest questions surrounding Boston’s young starting pitchers was whether or not they could survive a full 162-game season. Guys like Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford and Brayan Bello had shown they could compete against big league hitters, but could they maintain their stuff deep into August and September?

The answer, it turns out, is a resounding yes.

This weekend Houck, Crawford and Bello wrap up successful seasons in which each will exceed 30 starts for the first time in their careers. Houck and Crawford will both approach 180 innings, and while an early-season injury will prevent Bello from nearing that mark, he has also made every start since mid-May and gotten better as the season’s gone along.

Even if the season ultimately fell short of expectations, the trio’s emergence as legitimate rotation anchors has massive implications for the club’s future.

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“We felt like they were capable of it,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “They worked hard in the offseason to get to this point physically. Bello, you see the evolution of the body. Kutter put some weight. And Tanner, he’s Tanner. He’s very consistent in everything he does on the field, in the weight room and in the training room.”

Crawford, who is scheduled to make his 33rd and final start on Saturday, comes into the weekend with a 4.17 ERA over 179.1 innings. Barring a change of plan, he will become just the fifth Red Sox pitcher in the last decade to make 33 starts in a season, and probably also the third to top 180 innings since 2019.

Reaching those totals is particularly gratifying for Crawford after he spent his first two full MLB seasons bouncing back and forth between the rotation, bullpen and injured list. He said his goal was to make at least 30 starts and throw 162 innings, but while he’s happy to have accomplished that, there’s still more work to be done.

“I feel good about my ability to stay healthy and make the starts and post every five days, but there are also other stuff that needs to be worked on,” Crawford said. “I’m not satisfied with where my velo is at, I’m obviously not satisfied with how many homers I’ve given up this year. I haven’t given up necessarily as many hits, but when I have gotten hit it’s been hit hard.”

Pitching coach Andrew Bailey, who praised Crawford’s progress and work ethic, offered a similar assessment of what it’ll take to reach the next level.

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“Obviously the long balls hurt him,” Bailey said. “So finding ways to stay off barrels, whether that’s increasing velo, honing in on some of the more intricacies of the shapes, specifically the splitter.”

With nothing to play for and having battled shoulder fatigue over the past few weeks, Houck won’t make his final scheduled start on Sunday, wrapping up a breakout year in which the 28-year-old earned his first career All-Star nod and established himself as a front-of-the-rotation guy. Houck finishes with a 3.12 ERA over 178.2 innings in 30 starts, all by far the best totals of his career.

And even Bello, who got off to a rocky start, finished the year on a high note. The 25-year-old missed three weeks with lat tightness in April and May and boasted a 5.32 ERA heading into the All-Star break, but from July 20 onwards he recorded a 3.47 ERA over 72.2 innings, a stretch that included one of the best outings of his career, an eight-shutout-inning gem against the Toronto Blue Jays on Aug. 28.

“l learned a lot this year,” Bello said via translator Carlos Villoria Benítez. “I was able to finish strong, I gave everything my last few outings so to be able to start pretty much every outing since May was a huge accomplishment for me.”

With the core of the starting rotation now firmly in place, the Red Sox should be much better positioned to supplement the group with additional up-and-coming arms along with new external additions this coming winter. But even if the Red Sox are happy with the steps their young pitchers have taken, the hope is this is just the start of their journey, not the ultimate destination.

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“For me moving forward it sets the bar for these guys,” Bailey said. “On what we expect and continuing to drive performance.”



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Mass. Gov. Healey seizes Steward-run hospital in Boston in bid to keep its doors open

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Mass. Gov. Healey seizes Steward-run hospital in Boston in bid to keep its doors open


The Healey administration said Friday that it had seized a Boston hospital most recently operated by bankrupt Steward Health Care.

The Democratic governor’s office said it used eminent domain to seize St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in the city’s Brighton neighborhood, a move that will allow it to take control of the property and transfer the hospital’s operations to Boston Medical Center.

  • Read More: St. Elizabeth’s landlords fight state takeover of Steward-owned hospital

As part of the legal process to take the hospital, Healey’s office argued that a potential shutdown for St. Elizabeth’s would create a public health emergency.

That’s because of the large number of patients the hospital now serves, and the knock-on effects to medical services across the region, the administration said.

The firms that controlled the hospital’s real estate had fought the takeover, rejecting what they say is the state’s low-ball offer for the property, State House News Service reported last month.

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On Friday, Healey said that while one of the firms, Apollo Global Management “continues to put its greed ahead of the health and wellbeing of the people of Massachusetts, we are taking action to make sure St. Elizabeth’s remains open.”

“By transferring operations to Boston Medical Center, we will protect access to care for tens of thousands of patients and save thousands of jobs,” Healey said in the statement.

Healey’s office had previously announced that it had found new operators for five of Dallas-based Steward’s seven hospitals in Massachusetts.

Lawrence General Hospital will become the new operator for both campuses of Holy Family in Haverhill and Methuen, Lifespan will assume operations of Morton and Saint Anne’s, and Boston Medical Center will take over Good Samaritan.

These transfers of ownership are expected to go into effect on Oct. 1, Healey’s office said.

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Two Steward-run hospitals, Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, and Carney Hospital in Dorchester, closed in August after Steward said it failed to find “qualified” bidders for the property.

Earlier this week, Healey’s office said it had convened a pair of working groups aimed at addressing the impact of those shutdowns.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate approved a resolution intended to hold Steward’s CEO, Ralph de la Torre, in criminal contempt for failing to testify before a Senate panel.

The Senate approved the measure by unanimous consent.

Members of a Senate committee looking into the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care adopted the resolution last week after de la Torre refused to attend a committee hearing despite being issued a subpoena.

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The resolution was sent to the full Senate for consideration, The Associated Press reported.



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