Scott Barlow finished Royals loss surrendering a single and homer. One upset him more
Upset as he was with the pitch that Jonah Heim blasted for a walk-off three-run homer to give the Rangers an 8-5 victory over the Royals in 10 innings on Tuesday, Scott Barlow was even more annoyed with his effort on the previous hit.
Adolis Garcia singled up the middle to score Marcus Semien from third and pull the game into a 5-5 deadlock. After a walk, the stage for Heim’s shot.
“Made a pretty good pitch to Adolis,” Barlow said. “I was more frustrated with that than anything. I made a really good pitch there.”
The Royals closer, Barlow entered the game on a career-best 15 1/3 inning scoreless streak. He had 24 saves last season and picked up his first one of 2023 in his most recent outing, at San Francisco last Friday, when he worked around a leadoff triple.
Making Tuesday’s outcome even more difficult to digest was the play by shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., that looked for a moment that it had created the path to a Royals victory.
Semien stood on third base with one out when Nathaniel Lowe lofted a fly ball to short left field. Witt sprinted out and made a remarkable grab to momentarily save the run.
“I was shocked,” Barlow said. “I went to cover home. I didn’t think anybody was going to get to it, or it was going to go foul. Then I saw him dive and he showed it. Incredible. Incredible.”
One more out and the Royals would have completed the comeback. Instead, Barlow’s immediate postgame duty was to watch film, talk with coaches and purge the defeat as soon as possible.
“That’s the biggest thing, got to flush in game and after the game for sure,” Barlow said. “Especially games like that.”
This story was originally published April 11, 2023 at 11:26 PM.