DENVER • So many have tried to explain what has gotten into Clint Barmes.

The answer is simple, but it’s not in statistics. It’s not in some new revelation bestowed by the hitting gurus.

Barmes is at peace with who he is as a baseball player and in a large part with who he is as a person.

All it took was the birth of his son Wyatt James to bring that peace.

“I think it took him back a step,” Barmes’ wife, Summer, said. “I think it made him understand more.”

Barmes was the first person to see his son enter the world. Barmes was also there to see Wyatt struggle after the birth. Wyatt had to be put on a resuscitator after Summer’s emergency Cesarean section.

“It was a really hard time for us,” Summer said. “It was really scary. But it was the happiest time of our lives.”

It was a time that gave Barmes moments to think and reflect. It gave him perspective.

Baseball no longer equated to life. Baseball no longer gave Barmes the greatest joy nor the greatest sorrow.

Just being born, Wyatt James gave his daddy perspective.

The Colorado Rockies infielder is having the kind of success that we haven’t seen from him since he earned National League Rookie of the Month honors in April 2005 – Barmes batted .410 that month.

Barmes got by with smoke and mirrors then. He was a neophyte, too inexperienced to really know that he wasn’t supposed to be playing that well. And he certainly didn’t know why he was performing that well.

So, when the going got tough, Barmes faltered. He fractured his left collarbone in a non-baseball incident, and it seemed like he never recovered. That would’ve been a great excuse if it were true.

But Barmes began pressing. Each at bat, each pitch meant everything to him. When it didn’t happen, when a hit failed to come, Barmes was extremely tough on himself. He wanted to regain the form that had escaped him. He wanted it too much instead of letting it come to him.

Then came a couple of seasons of intermittent stints in Colorado Springs with the Sky Sox. Having success in the big leagues, then getting sent to Triple-A – and having it happen numerous times during the season – can’t be good for the confidence.

But Barmes endured.

“He has dealt with the ups and downs of this game unbelievably,” Rockies pitcher Matt Herges said. “This guy could be a starter on 20 other teams in the major leagues and yet, he was with me in Triple-A last year.”

Barmes said he needed that Triple-A stint. That’s wrong. Barmes’ game needed Wyatt James. Barmes just didn’t know it yet.

Wyatt James was born Sept. 18, at the beginning of an amazing run that had the team and state buzzing. No Rockies player was happier than Barmes. Like most new fathers, Barmes couldn’t stop talking about Wyatt James.

It was great to see him in the clubhouse and see him happy and not stressed. This year has been no different. Barmes is happy. Little, if any, stress. He’s playing better than ever. He hit a two-run homer in Tuesday’s 6-5 loss to the San Francisco Giants – extending his hit streak to 13 games.

“I believe it,” Barmes said about the calming influence of his son. “There is certainly a correlation.”

Nobody can be sure of that.

But his numbers, his approach, his attitude toward the game and his place in it – they don’t lie.