On Friday night, Daniel Bard came out of the bullpen to pitch an inning for the Rockies. Then he retreated to the dugout, where he sat and watched another reliever, his teammate Carlos Estévez, earn the save.

Stripped of his closer duties, for now at least, Bard will have to get used to this new routine. The move isn’t expected to be permanent, but the Rockies feel their bullpen leader needs a break from the ninth inning.

Bard has, at times this year, shown the same masterful stuff that he displayed in 2020, when he came out of retirement with a duct-taped number on the back of his jersey in summer camp to earn a roster spot. He hadn’t pitched in a major league game in seven years, but the team believed in his stuff, and he ended the season as the NL Comeback Player of the Year.

But he’s had his fair share of failed save situations this year. The team isn’t giving up on him, especially after opting not to put him on the lucrative trade market last month. Bard is still the closer, and they are digging deeper for answers. This is just a bump in the road they need to get through.

“I don’t want to say that we’re going to get back to the drawing board on Daniel, but he’s in a little bit of a closer slump, no doubt,” manager Bud Black said Wednesday, after Bard threw a slider that was up in the strike zone to the Cubs’ Ian Happ, who skyrocketed it for a three-run home run.

It erased what was once a comfortable 5-2 lead for the Rockies and sent the game to extra innings. It came on the heels of another blown opportunity two days prior, when he gave up two runs in the bottom of the ninth as the depleted Cubs walked to an easy win.

Bard and Black had a series of talks Friday, and Black said Bard was receptive to the recommendations. At 36, he’s the oldest player on the team. He’s had his fair share of life experiences, including dealing with a wicked case of the yips back in 2012, an inexplicable mental block that every player fears.

When Black and Bard sit down together, their conversations are a dialogue. Bard is a very self-aware pitcher, and shares his thoughts about what’s been going wrong.

“He’s got very good self-evaluation skills,” Black said. “Even at his age, he is open to ideas.”

The location of the breaking ball, especially to left-handed batters, has hurt him this year. The fastball command hasn’t always been there either. They’ve addressed small things throughout the season, like adjusting how he positions himself on the pitching rubber after a series of bad outings in May.

At the top of the list is fixing the drastic difference in his splits between left-handed and right-handed batters. Against the latter, he has a 2.10 ERA and has given up just six earned runs this year. But against left-handed batters, that number jumps to an 8.06 ERA, with 23 earned runs. They’ll start by addressing his pitch selection, and how he attacks the hitters.

“This is just a step back to exhale a bit,” Black said. “I think there’s just some things that we need to rework a little bit.”