Article: Let’s Watch Jarren Duran Hit Some Triples (Part One)

[Davy Andrews]

Join us as we break down Duran's league-leading 14 triples, one at a time.

As you surely know, Jarren Duran hit 14 triples during the 2024 season, leading the American League and tying Corbin Carroll for the major league lead. In fact, one minor leaguer also tripled 14 times, Rockies farmhand Cole Carrigg. This was just a good year to hit exactly 14 triples. In celebration of the triple-tastic year that was, we’re going to break down all 14 of Duran’s triples. Because that’s just so many triples, we’ll break it into two articles. Part two will run tomorrow.   

1. April 18, Guardians
Duran started off with the basics, a classic Fenway Park triangle triple to knock in two runners. With the Cleveland outfield shaded the other way, he ripped a line drive to right center off all-world reliever Cade Smith. The ball rolled directly into the corner in the most satisfying way possible for a routine stand-up triple.

2. April 20, Pirates
Duran waited two whole days to triple again, but the second one was a very different variety. In the first at-bat of the game, Mitch Keller attacked Duran with a four-seam fastball on the inside corner, and Duran absolutely hammered it. The ball left his bat at 104.6 mph and traveled 390 feet into right center. It would have been a homer in 25 ballparks (including Fenway), but due to the high wall in Pittsburgh – 21 feet tall, a nod to Roberto Clemente – Duran knew to bust it out of the box. Because the ball left his bat in such a hurry, Duran had to hustle all the way, and he didn’t appear to be sure that he would try for three until he saw the right fielder get an unfriendly bounce off the wall. A perfect relay might have gotten him. Despite a home run swing, this was a hustle triple.

3. April 28, Cubs
Duran’s third triple (and second stand-up) triple came back at home. Yency Almonte threw a cutter right down the middle, and like any pitchers throughout the season, he learned that Duran isn’t the kind of player to whom you can make such a mistake. Duran laced the ball into right center and it just snuck into the triangle. Pete Crow-Armstrong played the hop beautifully, but he had  chance of catching Duran. The Cubs didn’t even bother to execute a real relay or make a throw to third.

4. May 1, Giants
One of the themes we’re starting to see here is teams paying for shading their outfielders toward the opposite field. With two outs in the fourth inning, Daulton Jeffries tried to tempt Duran with a slider below the plate. Instead, that slider just clipped the bottom of the zone, and Duran ripped a grounder down the first base line at 101.2 mph. The first baseman had no chance at it. Right fielder Mike Yastrzemski had to cross an enormous stretch of Fenway’s vast right field. If not for a favorable bounce off the side wall, and if not for the fact that Yastrzemski really hustled after the ball, Duran’s trip around the bases might have extended another 90 feet, going from stand-up triple to inside-the-park homer. Lest you start to think that Duran’s impressive number of triples came simply because Fenway Park helped him out, keep in mind that his next four triples would come on the road.

5. May 5, Twins
“This guy has no third or fourth gear,” said Minnesota play-by-play announcer Cory Provus as Duran motored around second base. “It is one and then five.” The quote showed that word about Duran was starting to get out. With the Sox up big in the top of the ninth, Duran’s fifth triple looked very similar to his fourth. Jay Jackson tried to catch him looking with a backdoor slider, but when the pitch caught too much of the plate, Duran yanked a low liner down the line and into the right field corner. It wasn’t a stand-up triple, but it certainly could have been.

6. May 7, Braves
Two days later, Duran knocked his first triple of the season that truly qualified as a gapper. When people say home runs are thrown rather than hit, this is what they’re talking about. Reynaldo López hung a big juicy curveball right over the heart of the plate, and Duran unloaded on it. López was lucky that the missile, which left Duran’s bat at 109.5 mph and traveled 379 feet, only went for three bags. Duran got a fortunate hop, as the ball likely would have bounced over the wall for a ground-rule double had it not caught the underside of the yellow padding at the top. Still, without any help from well-placed triangles or defensive shading, Duran had an easy triple. Ronald Acuña Jr., bearer of one of the strongest arms in the game, couldn’t put to use, as the Braves didn’t even try to make a play of it at third. It was Duran’s third triple in under a week.

7. May 19, Cardinals
An 11-game gap preceded Duran’s seventh triple of the season. It was the longest wait of the season to that point, despite the fact that he was red-hot at the plate during that stretch. In the same way that every no-hitter needs help from one great defensive play, every league-leader in triples is going to need some charity either from the defense or the official scorer, and on this play, Duran got both. With two outs and a runner on third, Chris Roycroft induced a lazy popup behind third base, and Nolan Arenado, the proud owner of 10 Gold Gloves and six Platinum Gloves, lost the ball in the bright, midday sun. Duran smelled extra bases and hustled to second as the ball clanked off Arenado’s glove. Rafaela scored and Duran, seeing that no one had bothered to cover the bag, swiped third as well. Despite its expected batting average of .006 (which tied it for the second-lowest xBA of any triple this season), the play was ruled a hit. It’s a line drive in the scorebook.

That marks the halfway point of this exercise, so join us tomorrow as we break down Duran’s seven remaining triples. What really stands out over the first half is an intense desire to grab the extra base. You can’t rack up a lot of triples without being a good hitter or a fast runner, but desire matters a lot too. According to Baseball Prospectus, Duran was no better than league average when it came to snagging extra bases, but only when he started the play as a baserunner. He finished second in all of baseball at Deserved Runs on Bases After Contact, which shows how good batters are at taking the extra base once they’ve put the ball into play. The biggest reason he hit so many triples? He wanted them badly.  

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[moonslav59]

Love this! That 7th one was