McAdam On Toucher & Rich: Good Signs From Daniel Bard
BSOTON (CBS) - Daniel Bard made his first start for the Red Sox Tuesday night in Toronto with some mixed results.
Bard surrendered five runs over five-plus innings of work in Boston's 7-3 loss, but CSNNE's Sean McAdam said there were some good signs from the reliever-turned-starter.
"Giving up five runs in five innings is not what they are after, and you would like your starter not to be in the mid-90's with his pitch count before he gets an out in the sixth inning; those are two things that cannot be ignored. But I thought otherwise there were a lot of good signs," McAdam told 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich Wednesday morning. "I thought his stuff was good. He maintained the velocity of his fastball deep into the game. Before the infield hit and the walk to open the six, he had retired eight of nine and it was almost as if he was settling in a little."
"When you look at that line this morning of eight hits, five runs in five-plus, that doesn't convince you that this experiment is going swimmingly, but as I said, I think he pitched better than he looked," said McAdam. "He incorporated the secondary stuff, the slider and the changeup a little better than he had."
Bard also said after the game that he was saving his best fastballs for later in the game, working on setting batters up with a 91-mph fastball early in counts and then going to the gas.
But overall, Bard said he didn't get the job done.
"He was the first to acknowledge that this is about results, and the results obviously stunk; that was his quote. But he thought it was the best he's thrown all spring and there was some stuff to like there," said McAdam. "I think Bobby Valentine probably put it into perspective best. He said 'you get 30 more of those you're going to get a lot of wins out of it.' So roughly translated, if anyone is sitting back there thinking he gave up five runs and now they'll think about having him close, that is not the mindset of the organization."
Also, what was with David Ortiz' recent steal attempt in Toronto? And is there a new Carl Crawford injury to worry about?
