Clay Holmes is starting to get himself into a groove.
The big right-hander took the mound for the Mets during Monday night’s series opener in Minnesota and he put together easily his strongest outing of the season to this point — allowing just one run on two hits while walking two and striking out eight.
“He was pretty nasty today,” Carlos Mendoza said.
As was the case during his last outing against the Marlins, Holmes was in control from the get-go, as he retired all but one batter while striking out six his first time through the order.
Things weren’t as easy from there, but he still did well to limit the damage.
Matt Wallner was the second baserunner to reach against him on the night when he laced a two out triple off the right field wall, but a Carlos Correa lineout helped Holmes quickly dance out of danger.
He lost command of the strike zone a bit in the fifth, as two walks and a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases with nobody out, but again was able to bare down and escaped the threat with just one run allowed on a sacrifice fly.
Holmes finished the outing with his third strikeout of star centerfielder Byron Buxton.
“He was really, really good,” Mendoza said. “Even when he lost it, he kept making pitches. He kept finding a way to get back and limited the damage. He gave us a chance and then he ended up getting the win.”
While Holmes hasn’t been working deep into games early in his transition to the rotation, he has been very effective — pitching to a 3.66 ERA through four starts while recording six or more strikeouts in each of his last three.
And again on Monday night, the bullpen did their job stepping up behind him — as Huascar Brazoban put together two hitless innings, Reed Garrett struck out two in a scoreless inning, and Ryne Stanek closed out the ninth.
With the offense still not clicking at 100 percent, the pitching continues leading the way.
“They’ve been doing a really good job,” Juan Soto said. “The bullpen has been great and out starters have been setting the table for the bullpen — so I think we are in good shape right now.”
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