Jose Bautista hit a threerun homer, rookie Drew Hutchison won for the fourth time in five starts and the Toronto Blue Jays beat Bard and the Boston Red Sox 5-1 Sunday to avoid a three-game sweep.
The Blue Jays took advantage of an erratic performance by Bard (5-6), who allowed five runs, walked six, struck out two and hit two batters in 1.2 innings, his shortest career start.
“Daniel just couldn’t find it, obviously,” Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said. “He was hoping he was going to find a pitch or find a release point that would work for him.”
In an ill-tempered game that featured four hit batters, home plate umpire Mike Winters warned both benches after Boston’s Kevin Youkilis was drilled on the shoulder in the sixth. Youkilis stepped in front of the plate and yelled at Hutchison, but the situation did not escalate.
“I didn’t think any of them were intentional,” Valentine said.
Toronto designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion, one of two Blue Jays to be hit on the hand in the second, stayed in the game to run but did not bat again when his turn came up in the fifth. He was replaced by Jeff Mathis.
Bard, who has lost four straight decisions to Toronto, acknowledged that he’s not the same pitcher as a starter as he was as a reliever the past three years, saying he’s “constantly trying to tweak little things in (my) delivery to make the next pitch a little better than the last.”
“The ability to repeat just isn’t there like it has been in the past,” Bard said. “If anything, it’s that I allowed something to happen when I switched roles. Maybe we just tried to turn me into a starter rather than just take the same pitcher I was out there and move that guy to the rotation, which is probably what should have been done.”
Bard walked the first two batters of the game before Bautista hit a homer off the facing of the second deck in left, his 14th of the season and second in two days.
Kelly Shoppach provided the only Boston run, hitting a two-out homer to center in the fifth, his third.
Darren Oliver got two outs in the eighth and Francisco Cordero got the third before Casey Janssen finished in the ninth for Toronto.
NOTES: Bard’s career-high in walks is seven, set April 16 against Tampa Bay … Red Sox 2B Dustin Pedroia (right thumb) reported no pain from his batting practice session Saturday. Pedroia is expected to hit again today, an off-day for Boston.
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