Banner day for Royals bullpen as Jose Cuas gets first win, relievers throw five scoreless
The Kansas City Royals bullpen has been in a state of fluctuation in recent weeks. COVID caused a bit of a revolving door, some mainstays have had the typical ups-and-downs and some newcomers hit speed bumps.
Things can get messy when a bullpen isn’t on solid footing or has been overworked and undermanned.
But then there are those days like Wednesday when the Royals corps had to cover five innings and didn’t give up a run in a 3-2 win over the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park.
Position-player-turned-pitcher Jose Cuas, who took a detour to the majors that included working for FedEx and pitching in independent ball, earned his first major-league win. Taylor Clarke got back on track after some shaky recent outings, Amir Garrett had a solid outing in his first week back from the COVID IL and Scott Barlow recorded a five-out save.
“It’s amazing,” Cuas said of getting his first win. “It’s more than I’ve ever dreamed of. I can’t really tell you I’ve dreamed of this moment because I didn’t get this far in my dream. It’s amazing. I’m soaking every second of it I can and every day for me is just a dream come true.”
After the game in the clubhouse, the team celebrated Cuas’ first win by tossing him in a laundry cart and dousing the unsuspecting rookie with shaving cream, ketchup and powder among other things.
Garrett told him they had a “little surprise” for him after the game, but Cuas (1-0) wasn’t sure what to expect.
“I didn’t know that was the surprise, but I enjoyed it as much as they did,” Cuas said.
Garrett was the first pitcher out of the bullpen. Starter Jonathan Heasley threw 92 pitches through four innings. Garrett pitched the fifth and worked around a one-out hit batter to retire the side having faced just four batters.
“Amir coming in and kind of forcing their hand in those situations, what are they going to do,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “They’ve shown early that they’re going to go to their bench. We need him to come in and throw strikes, pound the zone, get his lefties out. He ended up getting us through that inning. That was a big one.
“I thought that’s as well as Taylor Clarke has thrown in a while, giving us a couple and giving Cuas a chance to come in. Then kind of piecing it through between Cuas, who has had a lot of work lately, and then Scott being Scott.”
Clarke and Cuas could be important pieces
Clarke came in next. He had experienced a rough recent run stretching from mid-May until this past week. In nine appearances from May 15 to June 10, he’d allowed 12 earned runs in 8 2/3 innings (12.46 ERA) with opponents having batted .467 against him and registering a .490 on-base percentage.
Clarke credited pitching coach Cal Eldred and bullpen coach Larry Carter for recognizing his mechanics were breaking down and causing his pitches to “flatten out.” Getting his pitches to feel right again allowed him to return to the aggressive mindset he typically pitches with.
“Even though I gave up a run against the Orioles on Sunday, I’ve felt way more like myself in these past two,” Clarke said. “It’s just I was fighting mechanics there for a little bit, but the last two I’ve felt like I was back to myself.”
Clarke threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings. He allowed two hits and struck out one.
Cuas entered the game with the score tied the seventh inning, taking over for Clarke. There was a man on second, courtesy of a leadoff double, and one out. Cuas got a fly ball and a strikeout to end the threat in that inning.
He faced the first two batters of the eighth after the Royals grabbed a one-run lead. Barlow took over with one on and one out.
“My mindset was just get the outs,” Cuas said of the seventh inning. “There was a man on second, one out, two righties up. Attack them with my best fastball. I hung a slider to (Wilmer) Flores, who got a good piece of it and hit it to left field. Thankfully, no damage was done. After that, I attacked with my best pitch, which is my fastball. Just get us out of the inning.”
Barlow didn’t allow a hit or a walk in the final 1 2/3 innings to record his seventh save in eight tries this season. Barlow has already thrown more than an inning to get saves three times this season, including a two-inning save in Minnesota during the previous road trip.
With Cuas taking on the role of cleaning up an inning with men on base in tight situations, the Royals could use Clarke as part of their high-leverage group of relievers to get the ball to Josh Staumont and Barlow to close games.
“We need (Clarke) to step up as we’re trying to kind of put together what that back end looks like before we get to Josh and Scott. And guys like Cuas and Taylor, today, are proving that they can be part of that conversation,” Matheny said.
This story was originally published June 15, 2022 at 8:44 PM.
