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Jarren Duran of the Boston Red Sox
For over 120 years, the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees have fueled a long-standing feud that remains as one of sports most iconic rivalry.
The sale of Babe Ruth to New York in 1919 birthed an 86-year curse, allegedly preventing the Red Sox from winning a World Series until 2004.
A benches clearing brawl in 1973 between Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk and Yankees catcher Thurman Munson initiated the intense battles between the two franchise in the 70s.
Yet, nearly 2,300 regular season matchups and six ruthless postseason matchups is still not enough to squander the respect between current players.
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Jarren Duran Looks Up to AL East Rival Aaron Judge
In a recent interview with Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic, Jarren Duran shares his mental struggles following poor performances at the plate.
“I was just doing some self-reflection and at the end of the season, like, ‘Why was I so worried about all of that?’ Duran said. “My mom always tells me, ‘In five years, is this going to matter?’ Just something clicked when I was doing some mental relapse after the season.”
Duran describes his envy of AL East rival Aaron Judge and former teammate Alex Bregman’s temperament following a bad at-bat.
“I’m like, ‘Dude, I don’t even remember that situation or at-bat, why did I care so much?’. You look at guys like (Aaron) Judge or (Alex) Bregman and these guys never look upset. Those are guys that you look up to. They are great players in this game. That’s what makes them so great and that’s what stands out, even if they get out or they get a hit, they’re the same. I want to be that for my teammates,” he added.
Duran’s comments about Yankees star outfielder is not the first time the pair of rivals has spoken publicly about the other.
Aaron Judge spoke out about an incident involving Jarren Duran and a Cleveland Guardians fan in 2025. The fan told Duran to “kill yourself”, three weeks after a Red Sox documentary aired where he opened up about a suicide attempt in 2022.
“We all go through our struggles in life, our ups and downs. For Jarren to prevail and still be doing what he loves to do, I definitely feel for what he’s gone through and what he had to go through on Sunday,” Judge told NJ.com. “You can boo and you can say whatever you want about performance, but what happened in Cleveland is taking it too far.”
Judge and Duran both played on the 2024 American League All-Star Team together, During the game, Duran expressed how cool it was to be on a team with the MVP while he was mic’d up.
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Jarren Duran’s Slow Start for the Boston Red Sox
Duran kicked 2026 off hitting .154, with an OBP of .389 through 13 at-bats. The outfielder was left out of the Red Sox’s starting lineup on Tuesday, March 31 against the Houston Astros.
Aside from going 2-for-5 on Opening Day, Duran is hitless in the following three games.
The Boston Red Sox started off the 2026 MLB season 1-3, last in the AL East.
McKenna Van Gundy McKenna Van Gundy is a sports journalist covering the NFL for Heavy.com. She spent two years as a sports contributor for her University’s newspaper, covering games and writing feature stories on players and coaches. She currently works for the NFL as a digital programming associate and lives in the greater Los Angeles area. More about McKenna Van Gundy
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