The All-Star casually denigrates an entire class of human beings on television.
Let’s get this out of the way first: it doesn’t matter that he said it in the heat of the moment. It doesn’t matter that the particular word he said is used much more liberally within baseball clubhouses than it is in many other environments. And it doesn’t matter that he said it to a fan who was being an ass.
All of those things are true. But none of those things change the fundamental fact that the sole purpose of that word is to denigrate and intimidate an entire class of human beings. No one uses that word unless they believe that an entire class of human beings deserves to be denigrated and intimidated because they are who they are, and unless they want to denigrate and intimidate an entire class of human beings because they are who they are.
Now we know what Jarren Duran believes.
In less depressing news, the only starting pitcher acquired at the trade deadline by the Red Sox, a team that desperately needs healthy starters to eat innings, injured the same leg that ended his season last year. He was seen on crutches in the clubhouse after the game. (Julian McWilliams, Boston Globe)
But at least James Paxton gave the Sox a couple of decent performances before getting hurt. Luis Garcia, one of the relievers acquired at the deadline to reinforce a tired bullpen, hasn’t even been decent. (Christopher Smith, MassLive)
Not everything that happened yesterday was completely terrible, though. Ceddanne Rafaela continued to impress. (Sarah Barber, Boston Globe)
The pitching struggles have some people wondering if a reunion with Milton’s own Rich Hill is in the offing. Hill, who has not played baseball at all this year, worked out for interested teams in Waltham on Friday. The Red Sox were one of those teams. (Adam London, NESN)
Rich Hill probably isn’t the answer (Ed. note from the future: he’s definitely not the answer) but the Sox need to do something to fix the pitching staff, because it’s getting late early around here. (Rob Bradford, WEEI)