BOSTON — Jarren Duran thought he checked his swing.
But third base umpire Edwin Moscoso ruled it was strike three swinging for the second out of the eighth inning.
A frustrated Duran shouted and pointed at Moscoso. Manager Alex Cora jogged out of the dugout to make sure his leadoff hitter kept his cool and didn’t get ejected.
Duran went 3-for-5 with two doubles and two runs but the Red Sox lost 7-6 to the Angels here at Fenway Park on Monday.
Duran was one of six straight hitters that Angels pitchers retired to finish off the game after Ceddanne Rafaela cut it to a one-run deficit with a leadoff homer in the eighth inning. Former Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen tossed a perfect ninth inning for his 12th save in 12 chances.
Boston dropped to 6-16 in games decided by one run.
“I can’t remember the last time I got like that toward an umpire,” Duran said. “But at the end of the day, he’s doing his job, I’m doing my job. I may not agree with it but at the end of the day, he is a human being. And if he thinks he made a mistake or not, I gotta live with it and it happens. It’s part of baseball. We’ve just gotta live with those kinds of calls and it happens. But I just gotta move on and get to the next game.”
Duran had a brutal series over the weekend against the Braves at Truist Park, going 0-for-14.
“Sometimes when they’re going through stuff like that, it’s good to come home and use the whole field,” manager Alex Cora said.
It’s always nice for Duran to return home.
His OPS at Fenway Park is 257 points higher than his OPS on the road. He’s batting .313 with a .368 on-base percentage, .496 slugging percentage, .864 OPS, two homers, 10 doubles and four triples in 31 games at Fenway. He’s hitting .230 with a .266 on-base percentage, .341 slugging percentage, .607 OPS, two homers, five doubles and two triples in 30 road games.
“I kind of got it handed to me in Atlanta,” Duran said. “They pitched me really good. I didn’t really feel comfortable out there. And I had a good night tonight but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter because at the end of the day it’s a loss. But I’m just trying to take steps in the right direction.”
Duran took a positive spin when asked about Boston’s 16 losses in one-run games.
“Personally I think it says that we’re a really, really good team and we’ve been in a lot of games but we’ve just gotta get over that hump,” Duran said.
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