Projo Sox Blog

This was not the late-season debut Michael Bowden expected.

He had gone through his ups and downs this season at Pawtucket, but he'd had far more good than bad. After posting a 3.20 ERA in the minors, Bowden and fellow PawSox ace Clay Buchholz were finally reunited on the major league staff, where they'd hoped to be all along.

Five innings into Friday's game, Bowden was summoned to the mound in relief of Brad Penny, with the only requirement being that he not make a bad situation much worse.

He couldn't even manage that. Bowden was torched for seven runs in two innings, and between this and a short two-inning stint in April, now has a 15.75 ERA next to his name.

Manager Terry Francona put Bowden in with the hope that he would pitch deep into the game and save the rest of the bullpen. But the Yankees worked the 22-year-old so hard, so fast, that they took him out for fear of damage to his arm.

"The first inning was so hard, I think he threw 43 pitches, that I felt it would almost be irresponsible to keep pitching him," Francona said.

Bowden seemed disappointed after the game, but hardly shell-shocked. He was clearly frustrated, but said all the right things.

"It's just an experience in itself. I'm going to learn from it, try to make the adjustments, and go out there and do better next time," he said.

Francona said Bowden just didn't have good stuff tonight. Bowden said it was more than that -- he couldn't do anything right.

"It was location, it was getting behind batters, I wasn't throwing stuff for strikes, so it was just a snowball effect. It was a lot of different things," Bowden said.

With Bowden now spent and unlikely to pitch again until early next week, it's not clear whether he'll be on the roster for long, or whether the Red Sox will deem his spot more valuable for someone else at the moment.

Regardless, Bowden should be here in September when rosters expand, and at some point Bowden will get a chance to make amends.

I let the team down and the bullpen down, and hopefully it won't happen next time."

 Tags  Boston Red Sox Dan Barbarisi Michael Bowden Terry Francona

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