'Good First Day Of Work' For Starter Daniel Bard
BOSTON (CBS) – For Daniel Bard, it was a little strange to be on the mound in the first inning on Tuesday.
But when his two innings of work against the Orioles down in Fort Myers were done, Bard's first start of the spring went well. The Red Sox righty struck out two of the seven batters he faced without giving up a hit, with 21 of his 31 pitches strikes.
The only thing he needs to get down is his pre-game routine.
"It was a little different getting out there before the first inning. It felt good though," said the converted reliever after the Red Sox 5-4 win. "I'm still trying to get my routine down; I found myself in the training all done with everything I had to do stretching-wise with about 20-minutes to spare before I wanted to go outside. I'm going to have to work that pregame schedule out, but it will come with time."
Bard said he threw mostly fastballs, mixing in a few sliders along the way, sticking with what he is most comfortable with. He would like to develop a change-up, although it is not a necessity to becoming a dominant starter.
"I don't have to, but I want to," he said of refining an off-speed pitch. "I think it will make me better, and if nothing else, it puts one more pitch in the hitters mind."
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Bard appeared in 70 games for Boston out of the bullpen last season, tying him for fifth in the American League among relievers. Now he has to get used to throwing multiple innings once every five days.
"I felt like I could have kept going. Hopefully it stays that way until we get up to 80-to-100 pitches," he said. "It was a good first day of work; always nice to have some good results to go with it."
"They make it real easy by just building one inning at a time. Two was fun today; it was a little different going out there for that second one. I did it sometimes in the past, but not a lot," he said. "The biggest thing for me is not looking at the big picture but the next hitter, whether it's the first guy in the first inning, or trying to get the last out in the fifth or sixth. You just have to get that next guy out."
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And as for making it to the seventh or eighth inning, he went back to his college days, when he was a starter for the UNC Tar Heels.
"I actually went back about a week ago, and pulled up some articles about some of my better starts in college. It sounds a little crazy, but I just wanted to say I had a couple complete games," he said of his days at the University of North Carolina. "It's just a nice reminder; the seventh and eighth innings seem like foreign territory to me right now but definitely something I've done before and pitch count-wise, it shouldn't be a problem."
