BOSTON — July was a thing of beauty for the Red Sox, and Daniel Bard and Matt Albers were two of the lead stylists.
Bard and Albers combined for 25 2/3 scoreless innings in the month, striking out 28 and allowing only 14 hits along the way. By contrast, August, all 24 hours of it, has been an absolute bear.
In what nearly amounts to a stunning development given the way they have pitched, the pair gave up four runs in two innings in a 9-6 loss to Cleveland on Monday, the big blows coming in the eighth against the indomitable Bard.
Entering with a scoreless streak of 26 1/3 innings, the longest for a Boston reliever since 1980, Bard gave up a single and then a two-run homer by Asdrubal Cabrera that snapped a 5-5 tie. As if the scoreless streak was lobbying to hang around a little longer, the umpires were forced to review the Cabrera shot, which appeared to hit a woman in the front row and carom out to Josh Reddick in right field. It was upheld, ending the streak and giving Cleveland all the runs it would need.
The tie-breaking blast was the second two-run shot in a span of three innings for Cabrera, who has done plenty of damage against the Red Sox this season, batting .370 (10-for-27) with four home runs and 11 RBIs in just seven meetings.
Amazingly enough, Cabrera had the last RBI against Bard all the way back in May, that one coming on a double that also broke an eighth-inning tie.
"I had thrown quite a few of those sliders down and in. I think he was just sitting on it," Bard said of the offering that led to Cabrera’s 19th home run. "He's a good hitter. He hit a really good changeup last time. Just a good hitter, he makes adjustments. We pitched him the same way too many times."
Albers also gave up a solo shot in the ninth, the first run he had allowed in 13 1/3 frames dating back to June 25.
To put the streak by Bard into perspective, Boston was 25-22 on the day he last gave up a run. It went 40-18 leading up to Monday’s setback. Bard appeared in more than half of those wins and every one of those appearances came with the final result very much in the balance. He is the very definition of a high-leverage pitcher.
In somewhat of a cruel twist, Red Sox manager Terry Francona said before the game that Bard was
"going to give up a run at some point."
When his prediction rang true just hours later, Francona really let his hard-throwing righty have it.
"He needs to pick it up a little bit," Francona joked, before explaining his removal of Bard two batters later. "That's why we took him out, so we can get him right back out there tomorrow, not waste his pitches when we're down."
That's when Bard will just go back to work, as if August never happened. Or at least the first day of it.
"For sure, start a new streak tomorrow," he said. "I don’t really care about [the streak]. It went way longer than I probably expected. I'm all about trying to help the team win. Tonight I didn't do that, streak or no streak. We’ve just got to try and move forward."
To August 2.
