Projo Sox Blog

By Joe McDonald
Journal Sports Writer

BOSTON _ Daniel Bard ran out to the mound last night in a situation that was at once intimidating and alien, and also exhiliratingly familiar. It was his first time pitching against the New York Yankees, in Fenway Park, to the heart of the Yankee order. And it was his first time pitching in the ninth inning in the big leagues, the inning he has owned, as a closer, through his college and minor league careers.

One first trumped the other, as the recognizable rush of being out there at the end of the game took over.
"Ninth inning's kind of familiar territory, so I liked it, it was fun," Bard said. "That's really where I'm comfortable. Really, the end of games, there's something that creates that adrenaline rush. I'm happy throwing wherever I can. I think most of us will take the innings wherever we can get them. But to get those, what feels like very meaningful innings, are that much more fun."

With Boston holding a 6-0 lead heading into the top of the ninth inning, Francona and pitching coach John Farrell knew it was an opportune time to insert the hard-throwing, 23-year-old Bard.

The right-hander faced the Yankees Nos. 3, 4 and 5 batters in Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano. Bard registered a fly out to left, a 4-3 ground ball and a strike out respectively.

"Some big names stepped into the box, but you try not to look at them as names. Think back on the scouting report -- every guy has their holes, they have their strengths. You try to stay away from their strengths," he said.

He reached 100 on the radar gun in one of his pitches to Cano -- the first time he's hit triple-digits in the bigs, as far as he knows. He took a peek up at the radar gun to see how fast that pitch went, and was pleasantly surprised.

"I reared back on that one, pretty much all I've got, so I wanted to see where I was on that pitch," he said.

His manager was just as pleased with his outing.

"That was a good situation to get him in to let him get his feet wet," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "He threw the ball well. You can't always pick the situation, but tonight we could and I think it was good for him. He's done everything we've asked. He keeps his eyes open, he listens to John, he's trying to learn while competing and he's done a good job."

 Tags  Dan Barbarisi Daniel Bard Red Sox Terry Francona

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