Daniel Bard Pitches Scoreless Inning
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| Matt Stone/Boston Herald |
Contributing Writer
Daniel Bard pitched himself out of a bases loaded jam in the Gulf Coast league in his first appearance since he gave up 5 walks for the AA Portland Seadogs on May 15th, according to the Boston Herald. After that game, he was shut down for a time before being diagnosed with an abdominal strain. Manager John Farrell said that it would be "a little bit of a long shot" if Bard were to pitch in the major leagues this season, according to the Herald.
That might be the understatement of the century right there. Aside from the 5 walks for the Seadogs in his last appearance, Bard has made 2 appearance with the Red Sox this year, in which he has pitched a grand total of 1 inning and has an ERA of 9 even according to ESPN. Not very promising. He was stuck in Double-A Portland for the most part before the injury, and wasn't performing up to the standard he set as a setup man for Jonathan Papelbon, and hasn't really been up to that standard since Pap left in 2011. Bard is unlikely to pitch again for the Red Sox this season because he needs to fully recover from this injury, and he just wasn't good at any level before, so he's unlikely to be of any help this year. My thought would be to leave him in the minors for the rest of this season, then see if Farrell and Juan Nieves can work through whatever his issues were before the injury and bring him back for Spring Training and see how he does.
Thoughts? Tweet me @ConorJF1016 or leave a comment below.
