‘He’s crazy talented’: Jarren Duran had a monster May for Red Sox

For Jarren Duran, May was magnificent.

He hit nine home runs, the most in a month in his career, to carry his .261 average, .331 on-base percentage, and .548 slugging rate — a major turnaround after he was foremost among Red Sox who had a slow start to the season.

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“He’s crazy talented,” said John Soteropulos, who became the Sox’ lead hitting coach when they fired Peter Fatse, along with manager Alex Cora and others, on April 25. “Credit goes to him. He’s working hard in the cages. He’s focused on all the right things. And then obviously the results in the game are there, too.”

Strong cage work tends to be a “leading indicator” of success in games, Soteropulos added. As Duran was going through it, hitting .170 with a .481 OPS and one homer through the end of April, he kept at it behind the scenes — albeit with a new hitting staff, including Soteropulos, who had joined the big league club as an assistant hitting coach just this year (after a couple of seasons working with minor leaguers).

Throughout, Duran remained the Sox’ leadoff hitter, in part because Roman Anthony, who opened the year in the No. 1 spot, sprained his right wrist/hand in early May and has not returned.

Perhaps predictably, Duran’s success lends itself to team success. The Red Sox went 7-2 in games in which he went deep (and 6-12 when he didn’t).

Duran is up to 11 career leadoff home runs, passing Jacoby Ellsbury (10) for second most in Sox history. Only Mookie Betts (20) has more.

“I know he got off to a very slow start, as did a lot of guys, but it is a long season,” interim manager Chad Tracy said of Duran. “You have to have faith that what you’ve seen in the past and the damage this guy can do — it’s going to show up eventually.”

Soteropulos: “We have four months left in the season, so just keep it rolling.”

Tuesday will mark Somerset native Craig Albernaz’s first game at Fenway Park as manager of the Orioles.

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Albernaz, 43, was a standout catcher at what was then Somerset High around the turn of the century. After heading to Florida to play at Eckerd College, he spent nine seasons playing in the minors before transitioning to coaching.

The Red Sox are keeping their rotation rotating against Baltimore, with the caveat that they have not decided if Brayan Bello will start the finale Thursday or if he will enter behind an opener.

Bello owns a 9.68 ERA in seven starts and a 0.71 ERA in four appearances behind an opener. But the Red Sox haven’t gotten a scoreless first inning from the opener in any of their four tries.

Here is how the pitching matchups shake out:

Tuesday: RHP Shane Baz (4.48 ERA) vs. LHP Connelly Early (2.95).

Wednesday: RHP Chris Bassitt (5.06) vs. LHP Payton Tolle (2.61).

Thursday: LHP Trevor Rogers (6.84) vs. TBD.

In a just-concluded 10-game homestand, the Orioles’ starters had a 2.38 ERA.

On Sunday, the Red Sox had a catcher at first base (Mickey Gasper), a catcher at DH (Connor Wong), and a catcher at catcher (Carlos Narváez).

Does Tracy like having three backstops out of 13 position players, or might it be something the Sox take a look at?

“I think I like it right now,” Tracy said. “I know we’ve talked a lot about [how] it’s difficult to get all of them in there, but there’s spots … So right now, that’s what we have, and we’re going to try to use all three of them [in] the best way for them and for us.”

In his first shot at being a true fill-time player, Wilyer Abreu has crushed lefthanded pitchers to the tune of a .418 average and 1.012 OPS. Those numbers are .226 and .677 against righties. Tracy described that as “pretty incredible considering that over the course of the first couple years, it was like, is he going to play against lefties?” … Ranger Suarez, through an interpreter, on the rotation sans Garrett Crochet (left shoulder and lat injuries): “We’re just a talented group. Everyone knows how to pitch here. You have Tolle and Early, who are young, but they don’t seem young. They’ve really helped us to be where we’re at now, and they’re really good pitchers.” … The Sox’ next nine (and 12 of 15) games will be against American League East opponents: Orioles, Yankees, Rays. Then it’ll be a homestand against the Rangers and Blue Jays.

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