Clay Holmes was the Mets’ biggest experiment entering the 2025 season. The All-Star closer signed a multi-year deal with the Mets to be a starter, and while there are plenty of examples of successful transitions, it was unclear how Holmes would handle it. And despite an excellent spring, his first two starts this season were adequate.
But Tuesday was the best start of Holmes’ career. The right-hander struck out 10 batters in 5.1 innings in the Mets’ 10-5 win over the Marlins. Although he allowed four runs on five hits and three walks, Holmes was better than that line says. Outside of the first inning, where walks and the wind aided the Marlins in getting out to a 2-0 lead, and the sixth where Huascar Brazoban allowed Holmes’ runners to score, Tuesday’s starter dominated.
Among his 10 strikeouts, Holmes struck out five straight batters including the side in the fourth inning on just 10 pitches — one pitch short of an immaculate inning.
“I thought he was really good. Better than the linescore to be honest with you,” manager Carlos Mendoza said after the game. “He wound up striking out 10 on a day where the conditions were really really tough and for a guy whose pitches move so much. How windy it was – that first inning, the walks… He found a way and he made it look easy and I didn’t think it was that easy.
“I have to give him credit, For him to go out in the sixth after what we saw in the first, in conditions like this, I thought he did a helluva job.”
“The dry weather, it was tough, especially with the wind,” Holmes said of pitching in Tuesday’s weather. “We all have to pitch with it. I think after that first, I was in the mode of ‘just make one pitch at a time’ and got through a better outing. It was definitely an adjustment after the first inning.”
So, what was that adjustment? Going away from his sinker and leaning on his four-seam fastball.
“Went to the four-seam, put me in better counts,” Holmes explained. “It was the pitch I had the most feel for. Got me in the zone, opened some things up.”
So far this season, Holmes throws his sinker at a 37.4 percent rate — the lowest he’s thrown his signature pitch in five years — and his four-seamer just 3.4 percent. On Tuesday, the sinker was thrown just 14 percent while the fastball was thrown 18 percent of the time, according to Baseball Savant.
As Holmes said, the four-seamer allowed him to get ahead in counts against a young, inexperienced Marlins team and away from walks. It also helps that Holmes has added more pitches to his mix, which was essential to his transition. Last season, as the Yankees’ closer, he threw only four types of pitches. that has increased to six in his first season in Queens.
“Part of [the adjustment] is having the arsenal and the awareness to pivot instead of forcing the sinker on a day like today,” Holmes said.
Tuesday was Holmes’ first as a starter with the Mets and the first of his career as a starter in seven seasons, when he was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Mets hope this is just the beginning of a new chapter in Holmes’ career.
Read the full article here