Scott Barlow benefits from lucky bounce as Kansas City Royals hold off Tigers’ rally
Kris Bubic tossed seven scoreless innings in arguably the best and most efficient start of his relatively brief career with the Kansa City Royals, and then he watched some tense moments as the Detroit Tigers made it a one-run game and loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth.
Highly regarded and heavily leaned upon reliever Scott Barlow held on and stranded the bases loaded as the Royals clinched the weekend’s three-game series with a 2-1 win over the Tigers at Comerica Park on Sunday.
How did the left-handed Bubic take in the final pressure-packed pitches thrown by Barlow with the game’s outcome hanging in the balance?
“Never a doubt,” Bubic said through a smirk. “Honestly, with Scotty there you know he’s going to execute when it comes down to it. Sure it gets a little scary, but at the end of the day that’s a series win.”
Bubic pitched seven scoreless innings, and Josh Staumont tossed a scoreless eight before Barlow worked through a nail-biting situation that included a fortuitous bounce and recorded his 16th save for the Royals (71-84).
Leading 2-0 heading into the bottom of the ninth, Barlow gave up an infield single on a ball hit back up the middle by Miguel Carbera that Barlow deflected. After a strikeout, Barlow walked the dangerous Eric Haase — 22 home runs in 92 games — on a 3-2 pitch.
The next batter, Isaac Paredes, doubled down the left-field line to drive in a run. However, the ball bounced into the stands instead of rolling up the line into the corner. By going into the stands, it forced the trail runner to stop at third base as the ball was ruled dead. Had it stayed in play, the tying run would have scored.
“That was definitely a bit of good fortune,” Barlow said. “I didn’t see how close it was to the line. I thought it was foul at first. I saw the umpire leave his hands up, but I guess that was for the ground-rule double. I know it’s sometimes better to be lucky than good I guess.”
With the tying run on third and the winning run on second, Barlow struck out Niko Goodrum swinging for the second out.
The Tigers sent veteran Robbie Grossman up as a pinch hitter. Grossman hit a walk-off single against Barlow in May. The Royals intentionally walked Grossman to load the bases.
Barlow struck out Harold Castro on a 3-2 slider foul tipped into the glove of catcher Cam Gallagher to end the game.
“A little nerve-racking there,” Barlow said of the ninth.
Barlow said his two big takeaways from the outing were that he probably should have let the ball Cabrera hit up the middle go through to his infielders instead of knocking it down. He also said he wished he hadn’t left the slider up to Paredes.
“Overall, I was happy with bouncing back and making pitches when I had to,” Barlow said.
Barlow’s 16 saves are twice as many as the next-highest total on the pitching staff (Greg Holland has eight).
He has now recorded a save in each of his last five appearances. He’s the first Royals reliever to appear in at least 65 games and maintain an ERA of 2.50 or lower since Ryan Madson (2.13) in 2015.
“He got into a mess and had to make something happen,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of Barlow. “He’s the guy we want on the mound in those high-leverage situations because he has been there the most.
“He has done a good job for us this season figuring out how to get out of it, and that took us right to the wire. But he did a nice job of getting it done.”
This story was originally published September 26, 2021 at 4:51 PM.
