Delcarmen trying to reclaim his touch

Boston (89-60) at Kansas City (62-88), 8:10 p.m. ET

Ian Browne / MLB.com

KANSAS CITY -- While the Red Sox, collectively, try to put the finishing touches on their sixth postseason appearance in the past seven years, Manny Delcarmen continues the individual pursuit of trying to regain his form.

For the past couple of seasons, Delcarmen has become a cornerstone member of manager Terry Francona's setup crew. Of late, however, he has turned in a string of subpar outings.

Heading into Tuesday night's game against the Royals, Delcarmen has a 21.60 ERA over six September outings, which means that he could be spending these next couple of weeks trying to prove that he deserves a postseason roster berth.

"I'll take the next couple of weeks and pretty much just bust my butt to get where I want to be and be with the team when the time comes for the playoffs and be ready to go," said Delcarmen before Monday's performance, when he was rocked for three hits and four runs over two-thirds of an inning in the Red Sox's 12-9 loss to the Royals. "I've always felt that I have to prove myself a little bit, whether it's early in the year or late in the year. I know what I can do; they know what I can do. It will be up to me."

What has gone awry for Delcarmen?

"When he gets to that balance point, he's got to [not] run away from his arm. It's a lot easier said than done," said Francona. "It's been that way for a while. It's something that he's aware of, [pitching coach John Farrell's] aware of it. We've talked to him. It would be great to get him back on that roll, because he's such a difference-maker in our bullpen."

The Red Sox still remember well the Delcarmen who didn't allow an earned run in his first 11 outings of the season.

"Manny has great stuff, obviously," said Red Sox left fielder Jason Bay.