Bethel’s Barnes living a baseball dream in Boston

BOSTON — A 14-year-old Yankees fan named Matt Barnes was watching at home in Bethel when Dave Roberts stole second base in the ninth inning of the 2004 American League Championship Series at Fenway Park.

“Turned the tide of the series,” the Red Sox reliever said Monday. “Iconic play in Red Sox history. Yeah, I was on the other side back then.”

Barnes gave a small nod and knowing smile that any Connecticut baseball fan would understand.

“Got some memories from that series,” he said.

As he prepares for his first World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Barnes can be forgiven if he feels as if all 28 years of his life have come rushing back to him during this October. It is a postseason where he has been especially effective coming out of the bullpen in seven of Boston’s nine games, allowing one hit and one run over 6 1⁄3 innings.

First there was the ALDS. His dad was able to get Yankees tickets back in the day. Matt attended Game 1 of the 2000 Subway Series. He was at the 2009 World Series and, yes, he was at Yankee Stadium for Game 7 in 2004 when the Red Sox completed the greatest comeback in baseball history. With Champagne stinging in his eyes after two scoreless appearances in the 2018 ALDS victory over New York, here was Barnes, the Yankees kid turned Red Sox man, ex-

claiming, “This is what you live for: Yankees. Red Sox. Postseason.”

Next up were the defending champion Houston Astros. A year after his bosses didn’t put him on the postseason roster, here was Barnes facing his close friend George Springer in Game 1 of the ALCS. The two broke school records together at UConn. They lived together when they played in the Cape Cod League. Barnes was in Springer’s wedding party last winter. Springer, the baseball hero of October 2017, will be in Barnes wedding party when he marries Chelsea Zara in January. Barnes walked him on five pitches.

“I told Springer I’m shocked in pitching every game in the series, I only faced him once,” Barnes said.

Having turned the tide of Boston sports history and tortured a young Yankees fan from Bethel, Dave Roberts should get a warm ovation from Red Sox fans Tuesday night. Manny Machado is a different story. There was that whole mess last year after Machado, then with the Orioles, slid spikes high into Dustin Pedroia and Barnes was suspended four games for throwing a fastball over Machado’s head. It’s a thrill a minute with Machado, so Red Sox fans will try their best to get inside his head. Any matchup against Barnes will bring great scrutiny.

Smoldering emotions? “Nope. Done,” Barnes said. “My job is to get him out. You put him on base because of something stupid in the biggest series of a lot of guys’ lives, the biggest series in the game, that’s bad karma. Next guy hits a home run with two outs? No, we’re good.”

There would be more, however.

“You’re talking about a play in which Pedey still hasn’t played since then, really,” Barnes later told Chris Mason of The EagleTribune. “When you take out a captain, a leader of a team, that’s not going to sit well with anybody … I don’t see anything happening, I really don’t, but it doesn’t mean that we’ve forgotten about it.”

Barnes’ only forgettable pitch of the postseason was in Game 5 of the ALCS when Marwin Gonzalez drove a curveball to left field for a home run at Minute Maid Park. He has combined with Ryan Brasier for stout work, responding in some highleverage situations. Coming in with runners on second and third and two out in Game 4, he caught Tyler White looking at two nasty curves.

In Game 2 relief of David Price, with runners on first and second and two out in the fifth, he struck out Gonzalez with a curve. He threw 14 breakers among 15 pitches that night to get four outs. He looked so good in getting the win, social media would go wild with Barnes touching his forearm. It’s technically illegal to use any sticky substance yet nearly universally accepted by opposing hitters who prefer pitchers get a grip than get hit them with a fastball.

“Matt looks so confident, you can see it in his eyes,” UConn coach Jim Penders said. “He is attacking hitters. He has better command in general, but he’s really spinning the heck out of that breaker. It’s got real depth and late bite. The biggest difference to me from last year is how vicious that breaking ball is.”

The 95-97 mph four-seam fastball. The 85-86 mph curve. That’s Barnes.

“When I first got into pro ball my curve was really bad,” Barnes said. “One day I was shagging balls with (Brandon) Workman and (Anthony) Ranaudo. They said you ever try spiking a curve? I said nope. I messed round with the grip they used and been spiking it ever since. The last couple of years it has come along. This year, for some reason, the velocity ticked up on it a lot. It has become a pitch I rely on heavily.”

And rookie manager Alex Cora has relied heavily on Barnes. This is a far cry from last year when he was left off the postseason roster.

“It definitely was frustrating at the time, but we’re past that,” Barnes said. “There’s no use whining about what happened last year. They made a decision they felt would best help the team. It sucks. You accept it. You move on.”

This was a kid whose velocity wasn’t overly impressive coming out of his junior year at Bethel High yet jumped at the end of summer ball. Unusual. UConn took an interest. So did Virginia, but it did not have an available scholarship.

“Thank God, we had one left,” Penders said.

A late commit, Barnes would develop into the 2011 Big East Pitcher of the Year. He would have to learn to be a reliever to make a living. It was a difficult transition. The most challenging part was finding a routine where he could work on stuff yet stay fresh. It took him a full season. And now here he is, at 28, appearing nearly every October night.

“It’s almost like you’re a position player,” Penders said. “Being ready to fight the fire every day, it’s got to be energizing.”

Over 162 games, of course, the bullpen becomes a lifestyle of its own. Workman, who has known Barnes since college ball on Cape Cod, is the resident needler.

“It’s like fighting with your big brother, but it’s all in good fun,” Barnes said. “We bicker all the time about whether Texas or Connecticut is the better state. Yeah, it’s Connecticut.”

Barnes is backing that claim up with a $50,000 donation for the new baseball stadium at UConn.

“The university and coach Penders have done an awful lot for me,” Barnes said.

“We’re going to have the Matt Barnes Bullpen,” said Penders, who texted Barnes he will attend Game 6 if the Red Sox haven’t already won the World Series. “He is a super-generous guy.”

Looking around at his teammates, at his life, this afternoon at Fenway Park, he says he is a guy simultaneously living his childhood and professional dream.

“This,” Matt Barnes said, “is the Holy Grail of baseball.”