1 week Ago By Dan Martin
Clay Holmes is still learning how to become a starter again. Tuesday, the Mets hope, was a solid step forward in that process — despite a somewhat unflattering stat line. The right-hander, who emerged as a top reliever with the Yankees mostly on the strength of a sinker he would throw again and again and again, now must rely on a more diverse arsenal if he’s going to successfully transition to starting.
And in a 10-5 win over Miami , Holmes showed glimpses of dominance on a frigid, dry and windy day at Citi Field. He followed a rough first inning, when he walked two and gave up a pair of runs, with a strong run of innings from the second through the fifth. At one point during that stretch, Holmes retired eight straight batters — five by strikeout — en route to a career-high 10 strikeouts.
He did it without his best sinker and relied more on his changeup and even his little-used four-seamer. “I have to use my arsenal and have the awareness to pivot instead of forcing the sinker,’’ said Holmes, who was facing a Marlins lineup for a second straight outing. As he makes the transition back to being a starting pitcher following six years as a reliever, Holmes has discussed the challenges of pitching effectively deeper into games.
For the first time this year, Holmes made it to the sixth inning of an outing, and he was most dominant in the fourth and fifth innings, when he struck out five and only allowed a fly ball to center. Holmes upped his changeup use and didn’t get any ground ball outs, a stunner for a pitcher who had a ground ball rate of 67.9 percent going into the game and who was second among relievers a year ago with a 65 percent ground ball rate.
“It felt weird,” Holmes said of the lack of grounders. “They had a lot of lefties, the wind was blowing in and I changed my arsenal, so maybe some days I’ll get less ground balls. I have to go with pitches in areas that play better.
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I got some swing-and-miss. It’s part of the adjustment period.” It wasn’t a perfect day for Holmes, whose day ended with a one-out walk to Griffin Conine followed by a double by Otto Lopez with the Mets up by four runs.
Huascar Brazobán entered and gave up a run-scoring grounder to Liam Hicks before Derek Hill blasted his first homer of the season to right-center to cut the Mets’ lead to a run. It made a bit of a mess of Holmes’ final line, as he gave up four runs in 5 1/3 innings in an 87-pitch outing, but there was reason for optimism for him and the Mets in his third start of the season. “He was really good,’’ Carlos Mendoza said.
“Better than the line score. The conditions were really tough, especially since his pitches move so much and it was windy.” Mendoza especially liked that Holmes bounced back from his 24-pitch first inning to get into the sixth.
“After the first inning, with the walks, he made it look easy,’’ the manager said. “I give him credit for going out in the sixth after what we saw in the first inning.”.
