With the Mets clinging to a one-run lead in the top of the sixth inning, manager Carlos Mendoza decided to pull starter Clay Holmes after 5.1 innings to go to his bullpen.
That decision ultimately decided the game as Reed Garrett entered and immediately allowed a game-tying double before the roof caved in on the reliever following a grand slam that broke the game wide open.
Holmes was taken out after 90 pitches and holding the Brewers to just one run — a Sal Frelick solo shot to start the game. The right-hander did issue four walks, a trend lately, including three in a row in the fourth to three straight lefties.
After escaping that bases-loaded jam with a huge double play, Holmes began the sixth by walking another lefty in Christian Yelich. He retired Jackson Chourio, but that was it for the 32-year-old with Milwaukee due up three more lefties.
"I thought the lefties were giving him a little bit of a tough time, especially after watching that fourth inning and you watch that Yelich leadoff walk with three lefties coming up and at 90 pitches there, I thought he did his part there," Mendoza said after the loss.
Over his last three starts, Holmes has walked 14 batters in 15 innings. It hasn't necessarily caught up to him as he's allowed just six earned runs during that time, however it hasn't allowed him to pitch deeper into games.
With New York in desperate need of length out of its starters — Wednesday's Game 1 of the doubleheader was the first time a Met starter pitched into the sixth inning in 17 days — the walks (not just from Holmes) need to be fixed.
"That’s part of the decision," Mendoza said regarding Holmes' increased walk total factoring in his choice to pull the right-hander. "… I just felt like, especially today, he was trying to use the secondary [pitches], the slider, sweeper as backdoor pitches as opposed to land[ing] it below the strike zone and get chases there. He was trying to be maybe a little bit too fine there and that’s when he started losing it and walk some of the lefties."
The skipper also mentioned that he didn't think Holmes' changeup was "in play today against the lefties" and that it's an important pitch that he'll need this season.
Holmes was asked about that changeup and agreed with his manager that he "didn't really have it today" and saying it's been "hit or miss" for him lately.
"I think early on I was getting a lot of swing and miss out of the strike zone," he said. "The profile has kinda been a little bit inconsistent, the feel’s been a little bit inconsistent so I think it’s one thing that I definitely need to work on and need to find that pitch so I can go in the zone and still get the chase with it when I need to as well.
"It’s definitely a pitch that was very useful early on and it’s kinda been hit or miss here lately so it’d be nice to have it back."
And although Holmes said he never wants to get pulled, he said the decision is out of his control. He also mentioned that it was "definitely a hot day" and that he felt like he was tiring towards the end.
Mendoza was asked if the Mets went into the game with a pitch count on Holmes (who was supposed to pitch in Tuesday's rain out) for whatever reason like they've had on him in the past, particularly after his start in Colorado where he threw just 79 pitches over 5.0 innings, and he said "not necessarily" but pointed to the game and how he looked for the reasoning.
"When you got a guy that’s at 90 pitches in 5.1 [innings], you know, like, you’re asking what? 100 [pitches]? 10 more pitches? That wasn’t gonna be the case," Mendoza said. "We got some other guys that can cover 18 innings."
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