It seemed like a textbook situation - tie ballgame, top of the eighth inning - in which to summon Daniel Bard from the bullpen.
After all, who better than Bard to ensure that the Red Sox would get a chance to pull it out in the ninth, especially after he’d strung together 26 ⅓ scoreless innings over his last 25 games dating to May 27?
Problem was, Bard failed to get the job done in last night’s 9-6 loss to the Cleveland Indians before a Fenway Park crowd of 37,943.
Bard (1-5, 2.28 ERA) absorbed the loss after giving up three runs on two hits in the eighth. Two of the runs came on Asdrubal Cabrera’s second homer of the night, a shot to right that broke a 5-5 tie. It was Cabrera who had last driven in a run against Bard, with an RBI double in the eighth inning of a 3-2 loss at Cleveland May 23, which dropped Bard’s record to 1-4.
“I don’t really care about it,’’ Bard said of losing his scoreless-innings streak, which was the longest in club history for a reliever since Bob Stanley put up 27 ⅓ from July 29 to Sept. 1, 1980. “It went way longer than I probably ever expected it would. I’m all about trying to help the team win and tonight I didn’t do that.’’
Cabrera’s homer initially was ruled a single after it appeared to carom off the top of the half-wall in right and bounce back onto the field. Cabrera said when he saw “it hit someone in the stands,’’ he thought he was deserving of more than a single.
Cleveland manager Manny Acta asked plate umpire Mike Estabrook to look at the play, and Estabrook ruled it a homer after replays showed the ball hit a female fan in the first row just beyond Pesky’s Pole on the left knee.
“When I saw it in person, it looked like it hit off the top of the wall and kicked back in,’’ Bard said. “But I guess further review showed it hit off a lady’s knee, so it looks they got it right.’’
It was the second multiple-homer game in Cabrera’s career; he had a pair vs. Cincinnati May 22. He has 19 homers this season after entering 2011 with 18 in his career.
Bard was not the sole culprit for the setback, however.
Although he took a no-decision, starter John Lackey gave up back-to-back homers in the sixth to Cabrera, whose two-run shot to right gave the Indians a 4-3 lead, and Travis Hafner.
“When he gave them a pitch to hit, they didn’t miss,’’ said catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, whose broken-bat, two-run homer off starter Josh Tomlin tied it at 5 in the bottom of the sixth.
“But he was sharp,’’ Saltalamacchia said. “He used all his pitches. I thought his velocity was good, curveball, changeup. So to me I thought he looked good.’’
Looking for his 10th win of the season and his fifth in as many starts, Lackey opened the game with a pair of scoreless innings.
