Clay Holmes looks like he\u2019s run out of gas. Unfortunately for the Mets, they still have a ton of road left to go.<\/b>
\nClay Holmes looks like he\u2019s run out of gas.
Unfortunately for the Mets, they still have a ton of road left to go.
Another poor outing by Holmes threatened to ruin Pete Alonso\u2019s big night, as Holmes failed to get out of the fourth for a no-decision in a 13-5 Mets win over Atlanta.
After Alonso hit his franchise record 253rd homer, Holmes gave back a 5-1 lead by coughing up four runs in the fourth, with the bottom of the order doing much of the damage.
\u201cHe had a hard time landing the sinker for strikes. He was missing arm-side a lot,\u201d said Carlos Mendoza. \u201cWe could\u2019ve done a better job recognizing that he was missing arm-side, maybe start using the cutter, some of the other pitches.\u201d
Holmes allowed six hits, five earned runs and walked five in just 3 \u00b2\/\u2083 innings.
With Frankie Montas already out of the rotation, Mendoza doesn\u2019t appear set to do the same with Holmes.
\u201cWhen you have a night like [this], you\u2019re always going to start questioning. But he\u2019s coming off an outing with five innings, 75-pitch efficiency,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cHe keeps saying he\u2019s fine, the sinker is 96 [mph], the movement. He just had a hard time throwing that pitch for strikes. So we\u2019ll continue to check on him, continue to make sure we\u2019re not missing anything. He\u2019s a big part of this team.\u201d
With Nolan McLean and Brandon Sproat waiting in the wings, Holmes trudged of the mound to boos from 39,748. He\u2019s struggled to a 5.10 ERA with 27 walks and 33 strikeouts over his past 10 starts.
A reliever throughout his career before this season, Holmes had never thrown more than 70 innings and is now up to 126, even after failing to get out of the fourth for the second time in three starts.
But he cited pitch selection, not fatigue.
\u201cThe sinker had been working. I got a couple of ground balls and in those situations, you just have to keep trusting it. I started getting a little too fine and then had to go over the plate in counts where I probably shouldn\u2019t have,\u201d said Holmes. \u201cLooking back, I just had to keep going, and if they want to hit five singles in a row, do it. But I can\u2019t put myself in bad counts, and it really helped them out.
\u201cOverall the sinker has been pretty good, just attacking and trusting early. When I\u2019m in good counts with it, I\u2019ve had pretty good results. I feel like the same thing, when I help them out and put some walks on, it fuels some momentum and the singles score runs versus just maybe a run or a guy get on base. So when I\u2019m in good counts, I feel like I\u2019ve been pretty good. It\u2019s just stay on the attack for me.\u201d<\/p>\n