Mets' Clay Holmes solid in bounce-back outing vs. Guardians after disaster vs. Padres
Mets starting pitcher Clay Holmes delivers against the Cleveland Guardians during the third inning of an MLB game at Citi Field on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Clay Holmes may have put some concerns about his place in the Mets’ rotation on hold for a while with an effective — if short — outing against Cleveland on Tuesday night.
After going a season-low 3 2⁄3 innings in his last outing, Holmes pitched five innings on Tuesday and allowed two runs. He left after 75 pitches with the score tied at 2.
Holmes, a converted reliever, has thrown a career-high 122 1⁄3 innings. His previous career high was 70 innings in 69 relief appearances for Pittsburgh and the Yankees in 2021.
So the Mets have legitimate concerns about how the 32-year-old will hold up over the long haul when the club needs innings from its starters.
Holmes was perfect over the first three innings with five strikeouts.
The Mets staked him to a 2-0 lead on Pete Alonso’s first-inning sacrifice fly and Tyrone Taylor’s second-inning RBI single.
Every Alonso at-bat included building anticipation over whether he would hit home run No. 252, which would tie him with Darryl Strawberry for the franchise record. Alonso did not homer his first three times up on Tuesday.
Cleveland’s first hit was a single to center by Steven Kwan leading off the fourth. Holmes then walked Daniel Schneemann. One out later, Kyle Manzardo singled in the Guardians’ first run.
After a fielder’s choice, Holmes served up a tying two-out single to Gabriel Arias.
Mindful of his pitch count and overall workload, the Mets removed Holmes after a 1-2-3 fifth.
In his previous outing, Holmes gave up four runs (two earned) and eight hits in a 5-0 loss at San Diego.
The Mets acquired a boatload of relievers around last week’s trade deadline. If they had been able to trade for a starter instead, maybe there would be talk of using Holmes — a former closer with the Yankees — out of the bullpen over the season’s final months. But there hasn’t been.
The Mets need effective starters now more than another reliever, especially with the struggles of Frankie Montas. The Mets are planning to use an opener ahead of Montas in Saturday’s game at Milwaukee in the hopes of finding a way out of the veteran’s issues (6.78 ERA).
Starting pitching prospects Brandon Sproat and Nolan McLean are both knocking on the door at Triple-A Syracuse. Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said on Monday he wasn’t quite ready to call up either yet.
“I think it’s always a combination of when, developmentally, those guys are ready, and also when there’s the need and how to fit it on the roster,” Stearns said.
“We may get to the point where we decide that it’s the best thing to do to bring one or both of them here, but we’re not at that point quite yet. I think they’re getting close. I think they’ve both had really good months, and they’re making progress.”
Taylor made
Taylor got the start in center against lefthander Logan Allen. Manager Carlos Mendoza said he is not planning on a strict platoon with Taylor and lefty-swinging Cerdic Mullins, though.
Mullins went into the night batting .224 overall, but was at .291 with an .847 OPS against lefties.
“He’s been pretty good against lefties, Mullins,” Mendoza said. “I’m not going to lie. And he will play against lefties. I just thought today was a good matchup for TT. I’m going to continue to play all of them. I already have three lefties in the lineup [Juan Soto, Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil]. I just thought, looking at these guys’ splits, pitch shapes, and all that, I thought today was a good day for TT.”
Big relief
Edwin Diaz, who was named NL reliever of the month for July on Monday, hasn’t allowed an earned run since June 2. It seems as if the Mets’ strategy of bringing along Diaz slowly in the early part of the season after a rigorous end to 2024 worked perfectly.
“Last year he was pretty good toward the end, but we were pushing him really hard,” Mendoza said. “Like multiple innings and things like that. But now, just being able to watch him day in and day out, pretty much his ability to control the situation . . . and his ability to continue to make pitches, that’s what, for me, is pretty impressive.”
Newsday’s David Lennon contributed to this story.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
