Clay Holmes Struggles With Command in First Mets Start

The birthday boy is supposed to get gifts, not give them out.

Clay Holmes, starting on his 32nd birthday, walked four, hit a batter and took the loss Thursday in the Mets’ 3-1 Opening Day defeat in front of 42,305 fans in Houston. He gave up three runs (two earned) on five hits over 4 2/3 innings.

“I think the big thing were the walks,” Holmes told reporters after his Mets debut. “I gave them five free passes with the walks and hit by pitch. And you know my game’s kinda built off limiting slug and basically limiting free passes.

“And really just gave them those extra free passes today that gave them just enough baserunners to kinda create some traffic there. I think if those walks were limited then you know we have a lot better chance to win that game.”

Holmes wasn’t trying something new with the outing, but it’s been awhile. He made four starts as a rookie with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2018 – the rest of his prior 311 career appearances had come out of the bullpen.

The Pirates dealt him to the New York Yankees in July 2021, and he racked up 74 saves over the last three seasons there before signing a three-year, $38 million contract with the Mets in December.

He tossed a scoreless first inning, during which he struck out Jose Altuve, before hitting a snag in the second. He plunked Jeremy Peña, surrendered a single to Cam Smith and walked Brendan Rodgers while Jake Meyers drove in a run on a groundout. Holmes rung up Altuve again to end the inning, stranding runners on the corners.

He didn’t have his best stuff in the third either, walking Isaac Paredes and allowing a single to Christian Walker before yielding an RBI knock to Yainer Diaz. Peña bounced a ball to short for a potential inning-ending double play, but Luisangel Acuña made an errant throw to first that allowed a run to score. Holmes later retired Smith to escape further damage.

He twirled a scoreless fourth, but was pulled with two outs in the fifth after walking Diaz. His first start in seven years was done at 89 pitches, 53 of which were strikes.

“It was really cool,” Holmes said. “To be able to start Opening Day and just take it in. It’s a cool moment. I don’t know if I ever really pictured myself in this situation. But to be able to take it in, try to enjoy it as much as I could. It was special. It was cool to take it in, but we’ll build off of this and we’ll keep moving forward.”

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