MIAMI — Colorado Rockies closer Daniel Bard, after a difficult night sleeping, woke up Sunday feeling awful.
It got worse as the day went on.
Bard, the Team USA reliever who suddenly lost command of his pitches Saturday night, was the one whose errant fastball hit Houston Astros All-Star second baseman Jose Altuve in Saturday’s 9-7 victory over Venezuela.
He hoped it would be nothing more than a sprained or badly bruised thumb, but Altuve was diagnosed Sunday morning with a broken thumb. He will undergo surgery this week and will be out eight to 10 weeks.
“I feel terrible,’’ Bard told USA TODAY Sports in the dugout before Sunday’s game against Cuba. “I was going sinker-in for a swing. I missed up and in. You just hate to see it. You saw my reaction.’’
Bard winced the moment the fastball hit Altuve, lowered his head, and then prayed he would be alright when he was on the ground in pain.
“He’s a great player,’’ Bard said. “You want to see great players on the field, even if I have to play against him. I want to play against the best. I wish him, hopefully, a quick recovery. I know it will be a minute.’’
Bard has yet to reach out to Altuve, but with Astros teammates Ryan Pressly and Kyle Tucker on the team, he planned to get Altuve’s cell number to leave a message.
“It’s never easy,’’ Bard said. “You want to make some guys maybe uncomfortable in the box, but not to the point of getting them hurt, ever.
“The intent of that pitch was to get a groundball, and I just missed in.’’
Bard, 37, is hoping he gets at least one more chance for redemption after his struggles. He faced four batters, gave up a hit, two walks, hit a batter, and threw two wild pitches. He threw 17 pitches, and just seven for strikes.
USA manager Mark DeRosa said that when Andrés Giménez reached base on a check swing for a single, putting runners on first and second with no outs, the wheels abruptly came off, and he was just never the same.
“I made the pitch, but I needed him to hit it harder,’’ Bard said. “If I could have sneaked my way into two outs and nobody on, I probably would have relaxed a bit and made some better pitches. When it didn’t happen, I kind of went the other way.
“I was just working through a few things, which was like normal spring training things in a lot of ways, but you’re doing it on a stage where there’s room for error. You’re trying to force adjustments rather than letting things…