Jarren Duran has received a lot of support from his Boston Red Sox teammates and others since revealing in a Netflix documentary that he attempted suicide three years ago. However, his openness has also made him a target for hecklers.
On Sunday, during a 13-3 victory over the Cleveland Guardians, a fan sitting near the Red Sox dugout made an inappropriate comment to Duran after he flied out in the seventh inning. Duran, visibly upset, remained on the top step of the dugout, glaring at the fan. As the seventh-inning stretch approached, Red Sox teammates and coaches kept Duran away from the area while umpires and stadium security dealt with the situation. The fan attempted to flee but was caught and escorted out of the stadium.
Duran expressed relief that the incident was swiftly handled by security and the umpires. “I’m just happy that the security handled it and the umpires were aware of it and took care of it for me,” he said. The Guardians later issued an apology, stating they had identified the fan and would work with Major League Baseball on further actions.
This was the first time Duran had been heckled about his past suicide attempt and mental health struggles since the Netflix series “The Clubhouse: A Year With the Red Sox” aired on April 8. He acknowledged the vulnerability that comes with sharing personal experiences, saying, “When you open yourself up like that, you also open yourself up to the enemies. But I have a good support staff around me, teammates, coaches. There were fans that were supporting me, so that was awesome.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora, although positioned across the dugout, praised the way security handled the situation. He also commended Duran for showing restraint. Duran had been suspended for two games last season after responding to a heckling fan with a homophobic slur, but Cora emphasized how much Duran has grown since then. “There’s a two-way street… We made a mistake last year and we learned from it. We grew up, you know, as an individual and as a group,” Cora said.
Despite the unsettling moment, Duran had an excellent performance in the game. He went 4-for-6 with an RBI, marking his second career stretch of consecutive games with three or more hits. In the previous night’s doubleheader, Duran stole home, making him the first Red Sox player in 16 years to do so. Over the weekend series, he went 7-for-15 with three RBIs, helping Boston secure two of three games against Cleveland. Duran’s recent improvement against left-handed pitchers was a key highlight, as he had struggled against them earlier in the season.
“I’ve been getting some good swings on lefties lately, just hitting it right at guys,” Duran said. “I’m trying to stay with my process and it just happened to work good for me this series. So I’m just going to keep at it.”
Duran has been on a hot streak, hitting safely in 13 of his last 14 games, with a .323 batting average during that stretch, including eight extra-base hits and six RBIs.
