The Red Sox have fulfilled many of their most diehard fans’ biggest wish.  On Sunday, Boston called-up flamethrower Daniel Bard from Triple-A.

Bard’s popularity lies with his electric stuff.  His fastball regularly sits in the high 90s range and has even topped three digits.

“I’m obviously excited,” Bard told MLB.com. “It’s something I’ve worked for my whole life, and I couldn’t be happier. Now that I’m here, I’m just trying to help the team win.”

The noise coming out of Beantown isn’t just hype either.  Filling the closer role with Pawtucket in 11 games this season, the 23-year-old right hander has allowed just two earned runs and six hits in 16 innings of work.

He hasn’t been scored against since April 25.

“It seems like the right time,” said Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein. “He’s been throwing really well. He made some strides with the last stages of his development in recent weeks, so we felt like the time is right.”

“If he attacks the strike zone, he’s going to have success,” said skipper Terry Francona. “It’s hard to get around it. He’ll give up a hit or a home run every once in a while, but his stuff is too good. He handles the running game. There’s not a lot of moving parts for a young pitcher that throws that hard.”

McCutcheon Update:
One step away from making the Pittsburgh Pirates active roster directly from Spring Training, prospect Andrew McCutchen has struggled with inconsistency in Triple-A.  McCutchen’s average has dropped to .261 for the season but to a pedestrian .235 in his last 10 games.  

His struggles at the plate have been exaggerated with aggressive pitching.  When behind in the count, McCutcheon’s average plummets to .133.

McCutchen’s Season Stats – Indianapolis (Triple-A)
AVG – .261; 2B – 5; 3B – 8; HR – 1; RBI – 11; BB – 12; SO – 10; OPS – .790