BOSTON — The Red Sox reinstated Jarren Duran from his unpaid two-game suspension Wednesday. He will lead off and play left field in the series finale against the Rangers at 6:10 p.m.
Duran served a two-game suspension for calling a fan a homophobic slur Sunday. He apologized that evening, then addressed the media Monday. Duran had played in all of first Boston’s first 116 games before sitting Monday and Tuesday.
“I’m still kind of upset at myself and I know there’s a lot of people upset at me,” Duran said before Wednesday’s game here at Fenway Park. “So I don’t how I’m going to take today. But I’m just going to go out there and just try to focus on some baseball.”
The 27-year-old said he is unsure whether playing again will be a step at getting beyond what happened.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Duran said. “I feel like it will probably be a step in the right direction. But it’s still something I feel terrible about and I’m just gonna work better to be better for myself and for everyone around me.”
Duran said he is excited to be back with his teammates after he tried to keep his distance the past two days.
“I’ve just kind of been trying to stay away from them. I don’t want to bug any of them with this,” he said. “It’s none of their problem. So I just feel like I should leave them out of it because I don’t want to bug any of them with this.”
He said it was a difficult two days.
“I can’t really put them into words,” Duran said. “Just a mistake that I made and I had to deal with those two days by myself. And it was tough.”
He said he and manager Alex Cora had personal conversations about it.
“He’s ready to play,” Cora said. “I think obviously there’s other stuff that is going on for him to keep getting better off the field. We know that. But on the field, just go out there and compete. He’s done that throughout the season so I won’t be surprised if he goes out there and has a good game.”