Jarren Duran homers late for second game in a row to seal Red Sox sweep of Royals

Gabrielle Starr, Boston Herald on May 20, 2026

Published in Baseball

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Too often this season the Boston Red Sox have struggled to battle back late, and lost winnable games; they entered Wednesday night’s series finale in Kansas City 2-23 when trailing after the sixth inning.

But in the top of the seventh, Jarren Duran homered late for the second consecutive game and the Red Sox came back to win 4-3 to sweep the Royals.

“It was just a good all-around win for us,” Duran told NESN’s Jahmai Webster on the field postgame.

Connelly Early pitched into the seventh despite a first-inning solo shot by future Hall of Famer Salvador Perez and the fifth-inning two-run blast by Elias Diaz. Early is getting hit hard of late, though; he didn’t give up a single home run in his first seven big-league starts dating back to his September 2025 debut, but he’s allowed nine over his last seven starts. Wednesday marked his third multi-homer outing this year.

Early allowed three earned runs on six hits, walked one and struck out five over 6 1/3 innings. He threw 93 pitches, 63 for strikes and racked up 13 swing-and-misses.

Royals starter Michael Wacha was a good pitcher when he was a rookie facing the Red Sox in the 2013 World Series, and reinvigorated his career pitching for Boston in 2022.

Wacha had little trouble with the Boston lineup Wednesday night, as Red Sox hitters bailed him out of nearly every jam they created for him. The 15-year MLB veteran held the Sox to one earned run and one unearned run on six hits, walked two and struck out eight over six innings. Wacha threw a season-high 105 pitches, 69 for strikes, and got 16 swing-and-misses.

The Red Sox went in order in the top of the first but then put Wacha in a bind. Willson Contreras led off the second with his first triple of the season and only his second three-bagger since August 2022. Contreras was the first of four consecutive Boston batters to reach to begin the inning. Ceddanne Rafaela reached on a fielding error by second baseman Nick Loftin, Nick Sogard tied the game with an RBI single, and Marcelo Mayer walked to load the bases with no outs.

Carlos Narváez’s first-pitch double play put Boston on top 2-1, but also put two outs on the board, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa lined out to end what moments earlier looked like a veritable threat.

The Red Sox tallied 11 hits, their season-high fourth consecutive game with at least nine knocks, drew three walks and struck out 10 times. But they stranded a pair of runners in the third, and wasted Sogard’s leadoff walk in the fourth and Rafaela’s one-out double in the sixth. In total the Red Sox were 2 for 11 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base.

Top right-handed Red Sox relievers Justin Slaten and Garrett Whitlock were unavailable after back-to-back appearances Monday and Tuesday, so interim manager Chad Tracy sent fellow righty Greg Weissert out to relieve Early in the seventh. Weissert has struggled this season – he entered Wednesday’s game with a 4.86 ERA over 19 games, including two blown saves – but he held the Royals scoreless in 1 1/3 innings.

Duran’s blast on Tuesday night put the Red Sox up enough for veteran closer Aroldis Chapman to get the night off.

No such luck for Chapman on Wednesday. Duran led off the ninth with his first triple of the season, which extended his streak of reaching base safely multiple times to a season-high four consecutive games, then became the final out trying to score when a ball skipped away during Contreras’ two-out at-bat.

Chapman took the mound for the bottom of the ninth having converted his last 26 consecutive save opportunities dating back to last July 26, tied with Atlanta’s Raisel Iglesias for the longest active streak in the majors, and the third longest streak in franchise history since saves became an official stat in 1969.

It looked dicey when Starling Marte led off with a single, but Chapman battled back to complete the sweep.

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