In Phoenix, Grant Holmes served up three home runs to one player. He became part of a historic day – for Arizona’s Eugenio Suarez. Holmes believed his stuff was good. On that day, Suarez was in a zone.
Holmes bounced back well.
On Friday, Holmes held down a potent Dodgers lineup that featured a dynamite top three of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. Holmes kept the Braves in this game. And perhaps just as important: We learned something about Holmes in the series opener against Los Angeles at Truist Park.
He will respond.
Against the Diamondbacks, he allowed a career-high six runs over 5 2/3 innings. Against the Dodgers, he gave up two runs over six innings – and his manager let him begin the seventh.
Despite Holmes giving the Braves a chance, they lost to the Dodgers, 2-1, in a rain-delayed game. (The delay occurred between the eighth and ninth innings.) The Braves had two hits as they couldn’t solve Yoshinobu Yamamoto or the relievers who followed him.
Holmes, though, pitched great – wearing the uniform he rooted for as a kid, and facing the team that drafted him years ago.
“It was pretty cool,” Holmes said. “Being against the team that drafted me, it’s pretty special. People kind of say it’s kind of like a little revenge game, but I was just trying to go out there and throw strikes, try to stay in the game as long as possible, and we just didn’t come out on top. And that’s fine, we’ll get them the next couple days.”
Minutes before first pitch, Holmes ran out to the mound as his teammates jogged to their positions. He warmed up. One pitch after another, he readied for his latest start.
He began it by striking out Ohtani, Betts and Freeman in order in the top of the first.
How’s that for a start to an outing?
“It was pretty cool,” Holmes said. “I feel like I blacked out a little bit right there. I was pretty locked in. I was just trying to make my pitches, make the pitch that (catcher Sean Murphy) called. I did that, and it came out in my favor.”
Holmes allowed a run in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly and one in the sixth on Mookie Betts’ solo homer. The first instance was rather impressive: The Dodgers had the bases loaded with one out and could’ve broken open a scoreless game, but Holmes got a flyout and a strikeout to limit the damage.
If you take out Holmes’ start in Arizona, he’s allowed 10 earned runs over 28 2/3 innings – a 3.19 ERA. Yes, it’s a bit disingenuous to remove his worst start in a small sample size. That outing still occurred. But it shows you that Holmes has brought the Braves stability.
Which is what the Braves need.
“Very important,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said of the stability Holmes has brought. “I’d hate to think where we’d be without him, because we’d be dipping into the depth and probably bringing guys up before we wanted to.”
Holmes is rather important for Atlanta. Holmes is a clear fixture in the rotation – likely for the entire season. Think about it.
-- Spencer Strider and Reynaldo López are out. Strider, who has a hamstring strain, is playing catch and receiving treatment but hasn’t yet been cleared to throw off a mound. López, who had a shoulder clean-up procedure last month, likely won’t return for at least a couple more months.
-- The Braves are already using Bryce Elder and AJ Smith-Shawver in the rotation because of those injuries. So, those guys aren’t depth – they’re current rotation pieces.
-- Ian Anderson is back in Gwinnett, but isn’t a realistic option to start right now because he didn’t perform in spring and didn’t pitch well with the Angels. He’s probably got to work on some things down in Triple A. Hurston Waldrep, who started twice for Atlanta last year, has a .704 ERA through six starts for Gwinnett, so he’s not a depth option that could start for the Braves at this moment.
-- And, oh yeah, they lost Max Fried and Charlie Morton from a year ago, so they needed to fill those rotation spots.
“When we were looking for starters to replace the guys we lost, he’s becoming a really good option here,” Snitker said. “It’s the first time he went to camp as a projected starter and breaking camp like that. You see him making adjustments. So that was really impressive tonight.”
The point in all this: The Braves need Holmes to pitch well. They don’t need him to be an ace – they need more from Chris Sale and more of the same from Spencer Schwellenbach – but they cannot afford for Holmes to implode. He has to be a consistent presence for the Braves as they find their footing this season.
“He’s been great,” Matt Olson said. “Last year from being the guy who’s coming up and down, making spot starts, and then toward the end of the year, he made some big starts for us. Then this year, he’s been great. He’s filling up the zone. That’s when he’s his best. The stuff is going to play. He can spin a breaking ball. He has a good heater, short arm action, hides it well. He’s been great for us.”
Holmes’ performance against the Dodgers is another encouraging night in his neat story. Holmes, the Braves fan growing up, spent a decade in the minors before getting called up last year. Now, he has some runway in the rotation.
He’s made the most of it, including a great performance against one of the best teams in baseball.
“It was really nice,” Holmes said of his outing. “Coming off of that start I had in Arizona, it was pretty frustrating. Coming out today and doing what I did, it feels pretty good.”
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