After game-ending strikeout on Opening Day, Adam Duvall said how he prevailed to hit the walk-off homer on Saturday
Duvall took advantage on Saturday after the Orioles gave the Red Sox a second chance to tie or win the game in the ninth inning.
The preamble to Adam Duvall’s final at-bat on Saturday was eerily similar to his final at-bat in Thursday’s Opening Day loss to the Orioles.
Just like Thursday, the Red Sox cut the Orioles’ six-run lead to one by the time he showed up to the plate. And just like on Thursday, the Orioles committed an error on the previous at-bat. On Saturday, it was Orioles left fielder Ryan McKenna dropping the ball on Masataka Yoshida’s fly ball with two outs that kept the Red Sox alive in the ninth inning.
So, Duvall stepped up to the plate again representing the winning run. He again faced Orioles closer Felix Bautista, but unlike Thursday’s game, Duvall was able to put a ball in play. Duvall connected on Bautista’s 99 mph fastball that was low in the zone, driving it to left field as it just got high enough over the Green Monster to give the Red Sox a 9-8 win – their first of the 2023 season.
When Duvall stepped up to the plate on Saturday in the ninth inning, he had a sense of déjà vu. But he just wanted to keep it as that: a sense, and didn’t want a full repeat of what happened on Opening Day.
“It feels good, especially after the first night,” Duvall said of his walk-off home run. “It was a very similar situation how everything played out. It’s kind of eerie with the error and then getting a chance to end the game there. So it was very strange walking up to the plate like, ‘Man, this just happened literally two days ago.’ So just a little different outcome this time.”
Duvall felt like he took more control of his ninth-inning at-bat on Saturday than he did on Thursday. He struck out on three pitches in the ninth inning of Thursday’s game, taking a fastball for strike one and fouled off another fastball for strike two before whiffing a splitter for strike three. On Saturday, he took a fastball inside before connecting with the fastball that won the Red Sox the game on the second pitch of the at-bat.
“I feel like I kind of let the situation get the best of me the first night and just tried to stick to my plan and what I wanted to do,” Duvall said. “I got a pitch I can handle.”
When Duvall hit the walk-off home run on Saturday, he wasn’t exactly sure if he had won the Red Sox the game. The ball hit the weird part of the top of the Green Monster, allowing it to bounce back into play.
Duvall had a good feeling though that it was a home run when the pandemonium began, but he still ran around the bases as if that wasn’t the case.
“I saw the lights start to flicker,” Duvall said. “So I was hoping it was gonna stand as a homer. But I feel like I was still kind of running it out because I really wasn’t sure.”
Duvall’s walk-off homer was just the loudest of the four hits he had on Saturday. In fact, he had a two-run home run earlier in the game as he went 4-for-5. He was in the rare situation of being only a single short of the cycle.
With Duvall hitting so well on Saturday, Red Sox reliever Chris Martin had a feeling that a walk-off home run was coming.
“I called his first homer down in the bullpen,” Martin told reporters. “When that guy dropped that fly ball I saw [Duvall] come to the plate and I was like, ‘This guy’s locked in right now.’ I’ve seen him when he gets hot, he gets hot.”
Kenley Jansen, on the other hand, thought the game ended on the at-bat prior to Duvall’s home run.
“It’s crazy,” Jansen told reporters. “It’s like, ‘Oh, man. We fought hard today and we came up short.’ And then I turned my back and I started to go to the clubhouse and I hear the fans screaming. Then I turned back and looked and he had dropped the ball.”
Duvall’s start at the plate has been a strong one. He’s 5-for-9 with two homers and six RBIs plus a 2.156 OPS in his first two games as a member of the Red Sox.
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