Scott Barlow is humming right along out of the Royals’ bullpen this month. Here’s why

When Scott Barlow signed his first professional baseball contract, a rookie deal with the Dodgers organization back in 2011, he was ecstatic. He was a spry 18-year-old, a right-handed hurler with the kind of talent that gave him the option to turn down collegiate ball for a shot in the professional ranks.

So that’s what he did. Seven years later, when he made his major-league debut with the Royals in April 2018, the feeling lingered.

When the season came to an end, though, and Barlow had appeared in six games for the Royals and another 16 with Triple-A Omaha, the 26-year-old realized something.

“Especially this time of year, you kind of have to pace yourself,” Barlow said. “At the beginning of the season, you’re obviously really excited, and you want to have a good year and everything. That’s not going to happen (in) the blink of an eye. Seasons take a long time.”

Perhaps that can begin to explain how Barlow followed a rough start to the 2019 season with a sterling month of July — he’s allowed just two runs and struck out 10 across 6 1/3 innings — and what it has to do with his two-week demotion to Triple-A earlier in the month.

“Just reset everything,” Barlow said.

Let’s start with the first three months of Barlow’s season.

Through May, Barlow ranked third among American League relievers in strikeouts (41) and seventh in strikeouts per nine innings (13.34) among qualified pitchers. He allowed just 3 of 17 inherited runners to score, which tied for third best in the AL.

That was all on top of the career-high six strikeouts he tallied on May 10 against Philadelphia, tying a club record for strikeouts in a hitless relief outing.

When June wrapped up, though, Barlow had amassed a ghastly 6.19 ERA and yielded six home runs over 31 2/3 innings. His best outing that month was a clean, 1-2-3 inning in the Royals’ June 11 win over the Tigers. His worst came 10 days later, when he failed to record an out and permitted two runs and three hits against Minnesota.

Two crucial occurrences enabled Barlow to regain his early season form. The first came on July 1, when the Royals optioned him to Omaha. In a pair of two-inning appearances against Nashville, Barlow allowed zero runs and just three total hits. He struck out three and walked one.

“Going down there,” Barlow said of Triple-A, “you’re able to work on a lot more.”

The other critical event came on July 7, the beginning of the All-Star break. Barlow traveled to Branson with his wife, Klancy, and a host of friends. They talked and laughed, rode in a boat and hung out in Barlow’s cabin.

When the break ended, Barlow rejoined Omaha and produced yet another sharp outing, this one against San Antonio: two innings, two walks and two strikeouts.

And, most importantly: zero runs. Zero hits.

The results were nice, Barlow will tell you, but the way he produced them was even nicer. It was the rest — from the major leagues, from baseball altogether.

“Getting sent down was almost a blessing in disguise,” Barlow said. “Being able to use that as a reset, breathe a little bit, and then getting called back up, knowing that even though it was such a short time, that little adjustment period to kind of relax a little bit and come back up and hit the restart button, that’s huge.”

Barlow had apparently inspired enough confidence from Royals brass to earn a recall, so on July 15, he joined the club for its home matchup with the White Sox. His number was called almost immediately. In the seventh inning, he became the first man out of Kansas City’s bullpen, facing three batters and allowing a run on a hit. He walked one and struck out one.

Not fantastic, but a start. The Royals won 5-2.

Two days later, Barlow was summoned to kick off the seventh inning. The results: aces. He retired Jason McCann with a fastball before inducing one out via a groundball and another via strikeout.

Even when Barlow returned for the eighth and Chicago hit back-to-back singles, he bowed his head and followed with two straight strikeouts. Threat over.

“I think it’s just a little bit of vegetable soup — you take a little bit of everything,” Royals pitching coach Cal Eldred said. “He hasn’t performed here at this level for that long with the workload and the stress innings against these guys at this level before. So it’s part of getting through that, understanding himself in that, understanding the hitters in that and then dealing with it.”

The other side of Barlow’s 2019 season, and his continuing improvement, involves his new role out of the bullpen. The Royals viewed him as a long reliever in 2018. He made six appearances and pitched at least three innings in four of them, stretching his outings and giving other relievers a chance to rest.

Now, Barlow rarely hurls more than an inning. In July, he’s done so just twice. The Royals and manager Ned Yost have opted to limit his innings, which has boosted his efficiency.

“His stuff here lately has been really good,” Yost said Monday night, after Barlow struck out the side in the eighth frame of a 7-3 loss to Toronto. “Slider’s been sharper, been locating it better, fastball’s been 94-95, been locating it better.”

Inside the Royals’ clubhouse, perhaps nobody knows Barlow’s situation better than closer Ian Kennedy. He spent the first 14 years of his career as a starter before the Royals made him their closer this season.

Since May 30, Kennedy has converted 18 of his 19 save opportunities, tops in the majors.

More importantly, Kennedy echoed what Barlow himself stated: One of the biggest differences in starting — Barlow did lots of it in Omaha last season — relates to time. When you start a game, you have lots of it. Time to settle in, to find a groove, to allow a hit here or a run there.

“But as a reliever, if you give up a run, it’s not usually good,” Barlow said. “So I think that is another adjustment. And being able to throw your best stuff right away and knowing you don’t have the luxury of settling in.”

New role. Few luxuries.

Barlow is getting along just fine, in other words.

This story was originally published July 31, 2019 at 10:17 AM.