Red Sox notebook: Daniel Bard sent to Pawtucket; Darnell McDonald activated from 15-day DL

The Red Sox selected 14 additional players on the second day of the draft.

View full size(AP Photo)Boston Red Sox pitcher Daniel Bard's fastball has uncharacteristically not reached above 94-mile per hour mark.

By JON COUTURE

BOSTON – Daniel Bard’s search to find a consistent release point, and with it the success as a starter that came so readily in relief, will continue in Triple-A.

Needing to make a roster move with Darnell McDonald coming off the disabled list, the Sox brain trust made it Bard. Scheduled to next start on Saturday against Washington, he’ll instead be in Pawtucket, with the specifics of his assignment to be hashed out Wednesday in a meeting involving the pitcher, manager Bobby Valentine and general manager Ben Cherington.

“Just felt the best thing for the organization and Daniel was to get in an environment where he could just work on that (pitching) mechanic and not have to worry about the big league record and his teammates,” Valentine said, adding the team still views Bard as a starter. “I think it’ll be a quick turnaround.”

Any significant progress in Bard’s transition from the bullpen stopped cold Sunday in Toronto. The six walks and two hit batsmen allowed in 12Ò innings mirrored the 26-year-old’s issues all season.

Ten games into Bard’s career as a major league starter, the opposition is hitting just. 259 against him, but .314 against his fastball, which regularly fails to get above 94 mph.

Bard’s hit an MLB-worst eight batters and is walking more than six per nine innings, one of only two pitchers above that threshold who’ve thrown 50 innings.

“He has three little checkpoints, and he’s trying to correct ¤’em all at the same time,” Valentine said of Bard, who felt he could work through his issues in Boston. “I think that the player has to feel it. And in Daniel’s case and in many players’ case, they want to think it and feel it, and sometimes the thinking part of the feel part gets in the way. “He doesn’t have to write a thesis on this thing. He has to just feel it.”

Daisuke Matsuzaka, a potential replacement for Saturday, struggled Tuesday night for the PawSox. Scheduled to throw three innings, he was done after 40 pitches and 1Ð, allowing three hits, two walks and a run in nine batters.

FALLING STARS: Light blue T-shirts reading, “I play for the American League, we will win,” dotted the Sox clubhouse, part of the promotion for this year’s All-Star Game in Kansas City. Boston’s slow start to 2012, however, is being matched in fan voting to determine the starting lineup.

Designated hitter David Ortiz, whose 1.2 million votes lead Michael Young of Texas by roughly 150,000, is the lone Sox player atop his position in the first voting update.
Dustin Pedroia has a hair below 700,000 votes at second base, but sits in third place, well behind Ian Kinsler’s nearly1.45 million.

American League totals will be updated each Monday through the close off an voting on June 28.

Josh Hamilton is the runaway leader overall with nearly 2.6 million votes.

IN HIS HONOR: Prior to the National Anthem, a moment of silence was observed for Springfield police office Kevin Ambrose. The 36-year department veteran died of multiple gunshot wounds Monday afternoon, the first Springfield officer killed in the line of duty in nearly three decades.

DRAFT UPDATE: Boston selected 14 additional players on the second day of the annual First-Year Player Draft, primarily taking pitchers (nine of the 14, including in six straight rounds) and college players (nine).

Among the more intriguing is eighth-round pick Nathan Minnick. The first baseman and senior at West Virginia’s Shepherd College was this year’s Division II national player of the year.

The draft concludes Wednesday with rounds 16-40, the Red Sox drafting 24th in each.