BOSTON - So what happens next with Matt Barnes? That's got to be the question being tossed around the Red Sox manager's office.
Barnes made his second start for the Red Sox in place of Steven Wright and once again showed why he's still a work in progress as the Sox turn him back into a starter.
Barnes lasted into the sixth inning of Saturday's 6-3 loss to the Royals, but was done in once again by the long ball.
With one out and the Royals leading 2-0 in the sixth inning, Barnes walked Kendrys Morales and gave up a single to Mike Moustakas on his 93rd pitch of the outing.
That prompted a visit from pitching coach Carl Willis. But Barnes couldn't execute what was discussed, and Salvador Perez made him pay three pitches later with a home run that put the Royals up 5-0 and ended Barnes' night.
"We felt like at that point in time in that final inning of his work that we want to let him work through that situation," Torey Lovullo said. "He was throwing the ball really well. Unfortunately he made a mistake to Perez, the ball was supposed to be off the plate. It was on the plate. You can't make those types of mistakes to those types of hitters or you're gonna pay for it."
Barnes allowed two runs in the first inning on a Morales double to left field that easily scored one, but pushed across a second run too due to Hanley Ramirez's misplay off the wall.
There were some positives Saturday night, too. Of the six innings he pitched, he only allowed one base-runner in four of them.
"I felt really good," Barnes said. "I thought I could command the ball with four pitches. Just a couple pitches in the first that were really aggressive with runners in scoring position. I thought I made a good pitch, he put a pretty good swing on it with Perez. Just trying to go away from him. It wasn't a bad pitch, it was a little up, but he put a pretty good swing on it."
The home run - Barnes' eighth one allowed this season - sticks out. It's something that he needs to work on limiting going forward.
"I think he just made that mistake out over the plate and we have a specific game plan against certain guys and the ball is supposed to be off the plate to set up another pitch and he just made a mistake," Lovullo said. "He threw a number of strikes today, especially early, we were almost in the dugout saying, 'Work off the plate a little bit and don't throw so many strikes.' And he got hurt in the first inning because he threw a lot of strikes. But that's a very good problem to have. You want to be around the zone. I just think he's learning and we're going to fine-tune some of those issues."
Barnes pitched one out deeper than his last outing, finishing at 5 1/3 innings, five runs, eight hits, one walk, and two strikeouts. Of the 93 pitches he threw, 63 of them were strikes.
Combined with his first start, Barnes has allowed 11 runs in 10 1/3 innings.
Clearly, there is a lot of room for improvement. But it's unlikely to come at the major league level, at least for the time being.
With Rick Porcello re-joining the team on their road trip through Chicago and New York, he's almost certainly going to take Barnes' spot in the rotation. And with the Sox intent on making Barnes a starting pitcher again, it makes sense to send him back to Pawtucket to finish up their season before September call-ups.
At that point, the Sox can at least toy with the idea of moving to a six-man rotation and getting Barnes some more starts to see how he's progressing. It's unclear what type of future Barnes has with the Sox after this season, but a young starting pitcher has much more worth on the trade market than a young reliever does.