Taylor Clarke is struggling in key role for Kansas City Royals. He hopes to figure out why

Kansas City Royals reliever Taylor Clarke attempted to find the right words to describe his recent struggles.

He couldn’t pinpoint what had gone wrong. Earlier this season, Clarke had a 16-inning scoreless streak. Now, he is stuck in a tailspin and searching for a way out.

“I don’t really know. It was kind of just going so good for a while, then the wheels just completely fell off,” Clarke said. “It wasn’t even gradual. I don’t know. I wish I had more of an answer for you.”

Clarke has allowed 15 earned runs in his last seven appearances. On Monday, he surrendered five runs against the Minnesota Twins.

Clarke entered in the eighth inning and surrendered a pinch-hit home run to Twins infielder Edouard Julien.

Later, Clarke allowed four consecutive singles as the Twins cruised to a 8-4 victory at Target Field. He generated 11 swings and just two whiffs in 18 pitches. The Twins attacked his four-seam fastball with hard contact.

Julien drilled a 95.5 mph fastball into the right-field seats. Meanwhile, Twins duo Christian Vazquez and Carlos Correa did damage against Clarke’s sweeper.

“I think the fastball is not riding as much as it usually is,” Clarke said. “I was trying to work on that today in the bullpen pregame. It just hasn’t been there. It’s something I’ve just got to reevaluate and test.”

The Royals are operating with a seven-man bullpen after trading Aroldis Chapman to the Texas Rangers. Clarke has assumed a bulk of the high-leverage situations since the trade.

Clarke understands the key role for the club. He plans to evaluate his delivery and mechanics. This includes adjusting his pitch movement and sequence. Clarke will also look at ways to rebound both physically and mentally.

“I am just trying to go back and look at what we were doing before,” Clarke said. “I think the toughest part is just that everything is the same.”

Royals manager Matt Quatraro still has faith in Clarke. He said the team will stick by him as he works through his struggles.

“We have confidence in him,” Quatraro said. “We are going to keep putting him out there in leverage or any situation that we feel good about. He is in a little bit of a rough patch right now, but we’ve seen what he can do on the positive side. We are going to keep working with him.”

Clarke appreciates the vote of confidence. He said his goal is to find the source of the problem in the upcoming days.

“It’s nice of him to say that and stand by me through the tough stretch,” Clarke said. “It’s tough costing the team wins here. Just relying on me, especially with no Chappy (Aroldis Chapman) there.”

The Royals are 25-60 after Monday’s loss. KC continues to evaluate the roster and Clarke knows his veteran status is needed.

“Someone has to step up and I haven’t been able to do that the last two weeks,” Clarke said. “That’s been the part that hurts the most.”