Clay Holmes had to deal with two rain delays on Saturday. It didn’t matter.
He threw 13 pitches before being sidelined by Mother Nature. He returned nearly 50 minutes later to finish the first inning with a scoreless frame. He’d only throw 57 more pitches on the afternoon, as the weather was really the only thing affecting him from going the distance.
Holmes left his latest start of the season with a 2-0 lead. He handed the baton off to Danny Young, and the Mets bullpen did what its done all season – hold up a bunch of zeroes in the box score.
In a 2-0 win over the Washington Nationals, Holmes lowered his ERA on the season to 2.64. With each passing start, he gets better and better. He looks less like the pitcher who struggled to find the strike zone in an Opening Day loss to the Houston Astros, and more like the converted reliever who ran roughshod over the rest of the Grapefruit League in spring training.
Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
Holmes, who improved to 3-1 on the season, pitched five scoreless innings, allowing no runs on four hits. He struck out only two Nationals, but more importantly he didn’t walk a batter in those five frames. When Holmes has struggled this season, it’s because he can’t find the strike zone. He had no problem doing so as the Mets earned their 19th win of the year to improve to 11 games over .500.
But Holmes also wasn’t missing bats like he usually does. But that’s because he was able to get an overly aggressive Nationals lineup to bite on his sinker, which resulted in 10-of-15 outs being committed on the ground.
Holmes would’ve had a chance to get more outs if not for the delay. According to his manager, Carlos Mendoza, the Mets would’ve tried to squeeze at least two more innings out of Holmes. Instead, New York turned to Young, Reed Garrett, A.J. Minter (who left with triceps tightness), Max Kranick and Edwin Diaz to preserve Holmes’ gem.
On an afternoon where Holmes wasn’t missing bats, he still got outs. It just goes to show how effective New York’s pitching can be, even when they aren’t recording whiffs. We’ve seen this happen with Kodai Senga, Griffin Canning, and David Peterson already this season. And it happened with Holmes on Saturday.
Even when their pitchers aren’t piling up strikeouts, the Mets find ways to dominate. Holmes didn’t need overpowering stuff to carve up the Nationals — just good command, a heavy sinker, and a defense ready to handle the rest.
It’s the kind of formula that keeps adding up to wins, and on Saturday, it was more than enough.
