Matt Barnes couldn’t cover his feelings on Thursday night time.
His physique convulsed as he walked off the mound, his chest shaking forwards and backwards, his proper arm flying by way of the air and his clenched fist pumping up and down.
When his 96-mph fastball noticed the upper-outer nook to freeze Orioles’ budding famous person Adley Rutschman for strike three, not solely did Barnes maintain a much-needed 4-3 lead, he additionally completed one thing outstanding.
For the primary time since Sept. 24, 2021, a span of 321 days, Barnes recorded a number of strikeouts in an outing.
“Matt Barnes did amazing,” a really proud Alex Cora mentioned after the Sox win over the Orioles introduced them to inside 4 1/2 video games of a Wild Card spot. “He was amazing today. Made some good pitches, used his fastball. That’s what we need.”
For as glad and relieved as Barnes appeared on Thursday, he’s greater than prepared to share what he’s been feeling within the 321 days since then: battle.
He’s spent greater than a yr enduring putrid performances he had by no means skilled earlier than in his life, all whereas feeling the self-imposed strain to be the man who may save the Red Sox’ bullpen after signing a $18.75-million contract extension he wasn’t dwelling as much as.
“That’s probably been the hardest part,” he mentioned. “A lot of people see the performance side of it or the physical side of it, but they don’t see the highs to lows to highs (of the mental side). It’s just been hard.”
In spring coaching this March, Barnes arrived in Fort Myers with renewed religion, telling himself that regardless of how dangerous he was on the finish of 2021, when he went from being the Red Sox’ All-Star nearer to being left off the postseason roster, a “fresh start” and a model new season can be simply what he wanted.
Then he began pitching.
“It never clicked,” he mentioned. “I never had it.”
It was a realization that froze him the way in which he had frozen so many helpless hitters the yr earlier than.
Just final July, Barnes was on the prime of his sport. A month earlier, he accomplished a 20-game stretch through which he confronted 80 batters and struck out 40 of them, a strikeout fee that ranked as excessive as anybody’s within the sport.
An All-Star for the primary time in his profession, he flew to Denver and had a enjoyable time along with his household. Pitching within the precise sport, when he loaded the bases and practically blew a 5-2 win for the American League, hardly appeared to matter.
But when he returned to Boston after the break, Barnes was noticeably much less efficient. And because the season dragged alongside, his arm dragged with it.
He posted a 6.48 ERA within the second half, misplaced his job because the Red Sox nearer and finally misplaced his spot on the lively roster altogether.
It was all made worse this spring, when he realized that it wasn’t only a dangerous second half in 2021, however one other yr was about to start and Barnes nonetheless felt like he had nothing.
HIs stuff had disappeared.
“The hardest part wasn’t necessarily the command of stuff in the zone because frankly, prior to the start of last year, every once in a while I’ve gotten a little spotty with command,” he mentioned. “I was never a guy who didn’t walk people. But I was able to get through it or overcome it because I had the stuff to strike guys out. That had been my game for five years.”
And instantly it wasn’t.
For 5 years from 2015 by way of ’20, Barnes’ common fastball velocity of 96-97 mph and the electrical spin he generated on his curveball made him top-of-the-line pure-stuff relievers in baseball. His stroll fee was all the time a sight for sore eyes — he walked 4.3 batters per 9 innings in that span — but it surely was not often an issue as a result of he struck out 12 guys per 9 innings.
“I wasn’t commanding anything well and I didn’t have the stuff to get away with that – that was the hard part,” he mentioned. “Early this year and end of last year, that was the first time in my career that I was like, I don’t have the stuff right now.’ It was like, ‘how do I get that back?’”
The psychological well being battle has “been the most challenging part and one of the hardest parts to fix,” Barnes mentioned. “Mechanically, you’ll be able to sit there and do reps and finally it’ll most likely come again. But the boldness, the belief, the grind of attempting to get again has most likely been the toughest.
“And it started at the end of last year. I went from being on top of the world and then didn’t make the postseason roster. That was a wake-up call. That was tough to swallow.”
Worse, Barnes began feeling like he was letting the staff down.
The Red Sox have lengthy been a staff that thrives with shutdown closers. In their championship seasons, that they had Keith Foulke closing video games in 2004, Jonathan Papelbon in 2007, Koji Uehara in 2013 and Craig Kimbrel in 2018 as they every ensured {that a} late-game lead was virtually all the time secure.
But when Kimbrel departed after the 2018 season, the Sox by no means signed a better.
Brandon Workman finally ran away with the job in ’19 and saved it till he was traded to the Phillies in a part of the deal that introduced again Nick Pivetta through the 2020 season.
Early final season, Barnes was pitching in addition to he ever had and have become the apparent option to take the ninth inning.
His stint as Red Sox nearer lasted for about 4 months.
“Obviously, you put pressure on yourself,” he mentioned. “I attempt to pleasure myself on taking up the position of being the stopper, being the veteran man on the again finish who can take the man and get the job executed 99% or 98% of the time, no matter it was. And I did that. And then I couldn’t.
“Last year was really the first year I had to take on that role. We always had closers prior to that, whether it was Craig Kimbrel or Brandon Workman for one year or Koji Uehara before that. But having to take that on, and then losing it, and feeling like, not only was it frustrating and tough for me, but that I was letting everybody else down.”
The Red Sox have struggled within the ninth inning ever since.
They’ve blown 22 saves this yr, second-most within the majors, and due to it, they had been compelled to maneuver two of their most interesting younger pitchers, Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock, to the bullpen.
Houck is now on the injured listing with again irritation. Whitlock is now in a closer-type position whereas John Schreiber, who collected a two-inning save on Thursday night time, can even play the half.
Thursday’s win by no means would’ve occurred if not for Barnes’ sensible seventh, when he struck out Ramon Urias chasing a well-executed curveball, then froze Rutschman on a perfectly-placed heater.
Is Barnes again to being the reliever he as soon as was?
He’s not fairly able to say it, however not less than he’s smiling once more.
“I don’t know that we’re 100% there, but it was a hell of a lot better than it was a month ago,” he mentioned. “We’re going to keep working with it.”
He mentioned he wouldn’t have arrived right here with out the assist of his spouse, Chelsea, his household in Connecticut and the Sox’ psychological abilities coaches, Ray Fuentes and Adan Severino.
The battle was actual. It is actual. And he’s not afraid to say it.
“There’s a lot of stuff that people don’t see that’s a lot harder than the (expletive) going on between the lines,” he mentioned.
Matt Barnes is fired up 🔥 pic.twitter.com/zJ4mhmwE5n
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthewCFB) August 12, 2022
Source: www.bostonherald.com