Holmes' second straight scoreless start sets up Braves' 10-inning win in Bronx
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NEW YORK – August has been good to Braves right-hander Grant Holmes. On Tuesday, he pitched six scoreless innings in a 4-2 victory over the Marlins.
On Sunday afternoon, Holmes bested his counterpart, Yankees right-hander Cam Schlittler, while Atlanta won the game, 2-1, in 10 innings at Yankee Stadium, salvaging the finale of the three-game series.
With the score tied at 1 in the top of the 10th and Yankees reliever Paul Blackburn on the mound, Michael Harris II singled up the middle, scoring Ha-Seong Kim, who pinch-ran for automatic runner Matt Olson.
“I battled a little bit. [Blackburn] gave me a pitch in, so I kept my hands in to drive it toward the middle [of the field],” Harris said.
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Right-hander Tyler Kinley picked up his first save of the season by retiring the Yankees in order. Kinley struck out old friend and longtime Rockies teammate Ryan McMahon to end the game.
“McMahon, he is a close friend of mine, a former teammate for the last six years,” Kinley said. “I know what he is capable of up there. I had a feeling he was looking for something soft. We were able to get ahead, change speeds – curveball and a slider – and put him away with the heater.”
Holmes gave the Braves another scoreless six-inning effort against a predominantly left-handed-hitting lineup.
The Yankees had runners in scoring position twice in the game against him. Their best chance to score was in the sixth. New York had runners on second and third with one out, but Ben Rice lined out to Ronald Acuña Jr. in right field. Austin Wells, who was on third, didn’t try to score on Acuña’s cannon of an arm.
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“That was big time,” Holmes said about Acuña’s catch and throw. “If not for the arm he has got, the run would have probably scored. Hats off to him for the catch and the arm.”
Heliot Ramos then struck out to end the threat.
“Like I always say, I want to go [as] deep in the game as possible and keep those guys in the bullpen out of the game as long as possible,” Holmes said. “To be able to do it twice is pretty special. It gives me a bit of confidence going into the next game.”
When it comes to Holmes, the Braves are seeing a different pitcher during the second half than what they saw before the All-Star break.
“Earlier in the year, he was getting himself in some trouble with walks and getting in tough three-ball counts,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “He has really tightened that up. He can spin the ball. He has a great slider. He has a good curveball. His fastball has played better recently with both the command and the shape of it. His stuff has ticked up recently.”
Atlanta took a 1-0 lead in the seventh when Matt Olson caught up to a 100.0 mph pitch from Schlittler and hit the ball into the right-field seats. Olson became the 12th player to have hit multiple career homers off a pitch of 100 mph or greater.
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“Schlittler is a video game out there on the mound with the stuff that he is throwing. It’s unbelievable,” Kinley said. “Like we have done this year, [Olson] picks us up, gives us a lead and we scrape one there in the 10th. It was a fun series.”
Holmes ended up with a no-decision when Trent Grisham hit a solo homer off Didier Fuentes in the bottom of the eighth inning.
In the end, the Braves had a happy flight home to Atlanta to face the Mets in a three-game series starting Monday night.