LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- There's never a good time for an injury, but for Louisville native Adam Duvall, making his debut for the Boston Red Sox, the broken left wrist he suffered while diving for a ball in center field in Detroit on April 9 was particularly damaging.
It cut short the best start to a season in his career, and perhaps one of the best stretches of games, period.
Before the injury with the Red Sox, Duvall was 15-for-33 at the plate (.455) with four home runs, five doubles, a triple and 14 runs batted in. In Boston's second game, he hit a pair of homers, including a walk-off, and wound up being named American League Player of the Week.
Having to sit down after that kind of start is especially difficult. But that start also has motivated the 34-year-old to rehab with a passion, eager to return to the field. That is happening this week in, of all places, his hometown, where the University of Louisville graduate went 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts for the Worchester Pawsox in a 9-2 loss to the Louisville Bats on Wednesday.
"I kind of looked at the schedule and saw this stretch right here," Duvall said before Wednesday's game. "So I thought it'd be really cool to get home, see, see the family and get to play in front of them and the friends and, you know, back to where it all started."
Returning to play will be a process. But some home cooking can't hurt. It's not the first comeback he's had to make. After a standout junior season at Butler High School, he missed his senior year with a cracked vertebra. Last July, he suffered an injury to the same left wrist that caused him to miss the remainder of the season for Atlanta.
In between, he has played some great baseball. He was a star at the University of Louisville after playing at WKU and in junior college in Florida. He was an 11th round draft pick in 2014, and two years later was an All-Star with the Cincinnati Reds. He had his best Major League season in 2021 with 38 home runs and a National League-leading 113 RBI to help the Atlanta Braves to a World Series title.
After last season's injury frustration, he was determined to come back strong, and was on his way to doing that. He said he likes playing in Boston, and is eager to get back.
"I like Boston," he said. "I like I like the weather. The weather's really nice. I like the big green wall out in left field. So it's nice."
Back in Louisville Slugger Field, Duvall couldn't help but think of his time with the Louisville Bats. After being traded to Cincinnati from San Francisco, Duvall was back and forth between Louisville and Cincinnati in the 2015 season before emerging as a big-time player for the Reds in 2016.
"The dream was always make it to the big leagues, it wasn't to get sent down," he said. "But, you know, I felt like, looking back that was a kind of a turning point in my career. And that's when I learned a lot about myself. It's not easy to get sent down and kind of be demoted. But I took it on the chin, went to work and got back up here and, you know, now I'm just enjoying the ride. This is still home. I moved a couple years ago, but all my friends and family are here. So, I'll make it back quite often, you know, to see the family."
Duvall is eligible to return to Boston on June 9, and that's his goal.
"The plan is to be ready then," he said. "I just want to get some at-bats, get on base and run the bases and track some batted balls down in the outfield, I think, and then kind of building the legs up underneath you a little bit. That'll be big. ... I'm ready to get back."
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