Here's something I got from watching Bard's starts in Spring Training. Even in his good outings, he'd have an inning where he'd just blow up. He'd lose the plate and his command. After his last Spring start, he said it was the first time that he felt like a starter and not like a reliever pitching multiple innings. I took from his performances and that statement that he had trouble maintaining focus for longer than a couple of innings. I was talking about this focus issue with a friend of mine yesterday. If you watched the game yesterday on NESN, Bard mentioned the focus issue as a challenge. The good news is that yesterday he made a lot of progress in that he looked more focused than in any of his spring starts and he threw strikes all night long. He still gave up 5 runs, but I think this was a significant step forward.