Duran, O’Neill crush big homers for Sox

Jarren Duran hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning, Tyler O’Neill had two home runs and the Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels 8-6 Friday night in Anaheim, Calif., for their fifth consecutive victory.

O’Neill, Triston Casas and Reese McGuire all connected in the second inning of a five-homer game for streaking Boston, with O’Neill and Casas homering on consecutive pitches by Griffin Canning.

The Red Sox blew two late leads with shoddy defense and mediocre relief pitching, but Duran put Boston ahead late with his first homer of the season. O’Neill added another solo shot in the ninth as the Red Sox improved their best start since 2018 to 6-2 — all on the West Coast.

“We didn’t stop playing, and that’s a good sign,” manager Alex Cora said. “We talk about last year … when we didn’t compete at a certain level to be successful. Regardless of the pitches and the walks and the errors, we kept competing.”

Logan O’Hoppe hit his first career grand slam for the Angels, whose four-game winning streak ended in their home opener.

After Los Angeles rallied to tie the game in the sixth and seventh, Duran hit a 105 mph line drive to center off José Soriano (0-1).

Duran, who attended Cypress High School 15 minutes from Angel Stadium before playing at nearby Long Beach State, said his friends and family numbered “too many to count. … (They) took up like most of the rightfield line, but it was awesome to see them all smiling.”

Mets 3, Reds 2: At Cincinnati, Edwin Díaz pitched out of trouble in the ninth inning to earn his first save since October 2022, and New York held on for the win. Jeff McNeil hit his first home run of the season and Jose Quintana provided a solid start as the Mets won their second straight one-run game after opening 0-5.

New York avoided its first 0-6 start since 1963 by scoring twice in the bottom of the ninth to beat Detroit 2-1 in the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader. The Mets were hitless through seven inning in that game.