Just about everything Mets converted starter Clay Holmes is experiencing in 2025 is new, but Saturday was something no one could have predicted.
The start of Saturday’s tilt between the Mets and Nationals was delayed about 25 minutes. No big deal, Holmes hadn’t started the game yet.
However, after getting one out in the bottom of the first inning, the skies opened up and the officials stopped the game to get the tarp on the field. As baseball fans know, rain delays could spell the end of a starter’s outing, especially if it’s a lengthy one. For 46 minutes, Holmes had to cool down from the nine pitches he threw, staying loose and then getting warmed up all over again when the delay was over because he had to take the ball immediately.
“Everything is new. This is new for him,” Mets skipper Carlos Mendoza said of the delay’s effect on Holmes. “As a reliever, you deal with a rain delay, you’re most likely done. We’re not even through the first inning… He had to develop a routine and find a way to stay loose, stay warm and give us a solid five, that’s not easy to do. Part of the learning and I’m glad he went through it.”
“You try to stay as locked-in as you can, but there’s really not much you can simulate like the game speed,” Holmes said of the experience. “Try to give what I could there, got through five and was able to make the most of it.”
Holmes pitched five scoreless innings, allowing just four hits while striking out two batters. While that statline may not jump off the page, Holmes was dominating this aggressive Nationals lineup, throwing just 70 pitches in those five innings, and at one point retiring nine straight batters. The right-hander would have gone deeper into the game if it weren’t for the rain delay.
“The only thing that stopped him from going deep in the game was an almost 50-minute rain delay,” Mendoza said with a chuckle. “He was dealing. Got groundballs and when he’s getting groundballs, lefties, righties, you know he’s on. Pitches were moving, attacking. Everything was in the zone. He was pretty good today. Part of the learning and I’m glad he went through it.”
Of the 15 outs Holmes got, 10 came on groundballs thanks to his patented sinker, which he threw 37 percent of the time. His new changeup was thrown at a 20 percent clip, and complemented his other pitches, allowing Holmes to go at least five innings for the fourth straight start, while allowing one or fewer runs in three of those outings.
All in all, the Holmes experiment is working for the pitcher and the Mets. In his six starts this season, Holmes is 3-1 with a 2.64 ERA and considering how much of an unknown he would be in the rotation, the organization will take it.
“I still think there’s a lot of room for growth, but overall, it’s been, I feel like, pretty good,” Holmes said of his season so far. “I think today was good to experience something new, having to deal with those things, but for me, I’ve relied on the people around me. Pitching coaches, the communication we have, the catchers. In that regard, I feel like it hasn’t been all on me; I’ve trusted the people around me. It’s been a group effort that’s been really good.”
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