Bard Gets Unlucky In First Major League Start (1-4)

Bard made his first start

The Red Sox are currently one rotation through the season and five games in-- yet things are not quite picking up for them. Daniel Bard was making his first major league start after acting as the setup man for the Red Sox for three seasons. He got off to a slow start, allowing one run in the first on three ground ball hits for the Jays. After a bloop single and a ground ball single to lead off the inning, Adam Lind drove in a run with one of very few solid hits for the Blue Jays-- a liner up the middle. Later in the inning, they scored another run on... you guessed it... another ground ball hit to make it 3-0 Blue Jays. Bard pitched pretty well for the rest of his night-- he retired seven straight from the third to the fifth innings. In the top of the sixth, the Red Sox finally got on the board off Kyle Drabek-- 5.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 4 K-- with a sacrifice fly by Adrian Gonzalez. However, they stranded a good scoring opportunity when Kevin Youkilis grounded into a double play to end the inning.

He was not too impressive

Daniel Bard stayed on the mound for the sixth inning and promptly allowed runners onto first and third with nobody out. Bobby Valentine made the call to the 'pen and Justin Thomas entered the ballgame. He was a disaster, walking Eric Thames to load the bases and allowing a two-run single to J.P. Arencibia and a sacrifice fly for Colby Rasmus to give the Jays a 6-1 lead. However, he did pitch a scoreless sixth to somewhat salvage himself. Michael Bowden entered the game in the seventh and allowed a homer to Edwin Encarnacion to make the lead 7-1. An optimistic fan might have thought the Red Sox had a chance when they loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth. However, an Adrian Gonzalez ground-rule double on a line down the right field line to score two would be all the Sox got in a 7-3 loss to Toronto.



Bright Spots:
Dustin Pedroia- 3-5
Adrian Gonzalez- 1-4, 3 RBIs, 1 sacrifice fly
Kevin Youkilis- 2-4, 1 double

Dull Spots:
Justin Thomas- 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 BB, also allowed two inherited runners to score
David Ortiz- 0-4, 1 BB, 2 K, 3 LOB
Jarrod Saltalamacchia- 0-3, 1 BB, 2 K, 3 LOB

Player of the Game:
Adrian Gonzalez- In a bleak day for the Red Sox, he knocked in all of the runs in key situations with three RBIs in the game.