From Laughingstock to Legit Contenders: Red Sox Magic Rolls On Thanks To Jarren Duran's Extra Innings Grand Slam

This is getting kind of ridiculous. 

The Red Sox - once the laughingstock of all of baseball thanks to a high payroll and a terrible start to the season - won again on Tuesday night. And they did it in dramatic fashion. 

Jarren Duran came up with one out in the 11th inning and proceeded to hit a mammoth grand slam to untie a 3-3 game and give the Red Sox the lead for good in the 7-4 victory. 

Hogdale has had a lot of good calls, but this might have been his best call of the season. 

Duran has had a roller coaster season with as many fan run-ins as big moments, but this was massive. And late in games is when Duran has been at his best - the guy leads Major League Baseball with 17 RBI in the 9th inning or later. Crazy. 

And he's a guy that might lose at-bats when Roman Anthony comes back, maybe as soon as this week. 

One guy you can't take out of the lineup is Mickey Gasper. Dude looks like he should be playing in the 1980s with the mustache and now goatee, and he had two more home runs. All he does is hit home runs. 

The Red Sox got a huge break in the 10th when the ball fired off the ump's mask and led to a run. 

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Everything is going right for a team that has won five in a row. 

I mean, this play happened the inning before the Duran Slam. Connor Wong can't stop a strike three, game over, and the ball goes all the way to the backstop. Wong doesn't get a throw off! But rather than being the game's lowlight, it's a footnote in another clutch Red Sox win. 

Meanwhile in New York…

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Red Sox are just a game and a half back of the Bombers. Even a dull Yankees fan would admit the Sox are a Top 10 team in MLB, right? RIGHT? 

Nice call, Marty. 

As Hogdale says, every time Mush mocks the Red Sox, something bad happens. In this case, it was something very good for their main rival. 

Magical is such an overused cliché for a good season in sports. But honestly, I'm having a hard time coming up with a better word to describe this season. 

Want your brain melted? The Sox were 32-46 on June 24. With the win Tuesday, they're a season-high 14 games over .500. That's a 28-game swing in two months. That is fucking insane. And now they're closing in on the Yankees. Do you think if and when the Sox pass New York in the Wild Card standings, Marty Mush might put them in his Top 10? Probably not. 

No one would want to play this team right now. They have 16 comeback wins since the All-Star break and are never out of a game. Every night someone else comes up big for this team. Tuesday it was Duran. Wednesday it will probably be someone else. 

What a win. And what a run from a team that went from MLB laughingstock to legit contender in two months.