Bard not available in relief Wednesday

Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine had initially indicated that Daniel Bard would be available in relief Wednesday night while appearing on The Big Show with Glenn Ordway and Michael Holley; however, later in the day Valentine changed his mind and Bard threw a side session and will not be available in the series finale against the Twins at Target Field. Valentine did reiterate that Bard would still be making his scheduled start Friday night in Chicago.

"It was a collective suggestion," Valentine said of the decision to pitch Bard out of the bullpen prior to his next start. "It's very temporary. He might get another inning tonight, but he will be starting on Friday. When we had the rainout and the off day combined I thought it was best to try to keep the other four guys as regular a rotation as possible and not move Jon and Josh back seven days in between starts. I talked to Daniel about that and it was well received. Since it has been a while since he threw last, we wanted to keep a feel of the mound and said, 'Hey, what do you think about that situation in the bullpen if something arises?' He said, 'I can do that as long as it's not back-to-back days.' The offense allowed it not to be back-to-back days last night."

Regarding the bullpen's struggles, the manager classified it as "really good pitchers making pitches that are less than they're capable of making, and throwing against some pretty hot hitters that lofted some balls and hit them off the wall, over the fence, hit them really hard. But I think these guys are very capable of being outstanding pitchers."

Valentine confirmed that Carl Crawford was seeking a second opinion on his sore left elbow, but he somewhat downplayed the concern regarding the visit to Dr. James Andrews.

"He is going to get a second opinion on what is causing this discomfort in his elbow, and until we figure out what it is, it will be in the doctors' hands and the rehab hands," Valentine said. "The good news is that he's swinging the bat really well. He feels really good about playing. He just wants to make sure what the story is when it comes time to throw because he hasn't been throwing for the last five days. He took one ball, from what I gather, and flipped it in without warming up during batting practice and felt a little twinge in his elbow and really wanted to get that checked. I don't blame him."

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