ATLANTA -- Grant Holmes was bewildered on Monday when he was limited to 59 pitches and four innings on a night that had started with three perfect innings. But his appreciation for Braves manager Walt Weiss grew when the skipper explained his reasoning for the early hook.
“I was sitting here [at my locker] pondering, like, 'Why?'” Holmes said. “But having him come here and get me and explain everything was really big of him.”
Weiss was also accountable after a 10-4 loss to the Marlins to open the series at Truist Park. He began his postgame press conference by saying, “pulling Grant in the fifth didn’t go the way I planned.”
“I knew I was going to have a short leash with him tonight -- not necessarily that short,” Weiss said. “His last outing had as much to do with it as anything. He emptied the tank for us in Anaheim.”
Holmes threw 99 pitches over 6 2/3 innings in a win over the Angels on Wednesday. He has now made each of his past three starts on normal rest. While there has been no sign of discomfort, the fact remains that an MRI exam last August showed a partially torn flexor tendon and partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.
So, it’s easy to understand why Weiss might have taken this cautious approach, which could prove beneficial as Holmes attempts to remain a healthy portion of the injury-depleted Braves rotation over the remainder of the season.
“It’s still frustrating, but he explained everything to me and I respect his decision,” Holmes said. “It is what it is. It’s like I told him, ‘You don't know until you try something.’ So it could have gone really well and it could have gone really bad.”
Most everything has gone well for Weiss during his first two weeks-plus as Atlanta’s manager. The 62-year-old leader’s aggression has extended beyond tackling the Angels' Jorge Soler.
Bryce Elder has been one of the game’s best pitchers going back to late August. But after he began to wobble with two outs in the fifth inning of Friday night’s win over the Guardians, Weiss brought in Aaron Bummer -- who promptly escaped a bases-loaded threat.
Bummer stranded two more inherited runners on Saturday. But the lefty reliever’s bid to keep Monday’s game tied at three evaporated when Miami DH Agustín Ramírez hit a one-out, three-run homer in the fifth.
Suddenly, instead of being able to use his high-leverage relievers during the final four innings, Weiss watched his lower leverage options allow the deficit to grow.
“I was hoping to get through that fifth with the favorable matchups, and then start going to our [high-leverage] guys and try to win the game," Weiss said. "Then, once we were down three again, that changes everything. I went for it there and it didn't work out.”
The good news is Holmes hasn’t experienced any arm issues since resting over last season’s final two months. He believes the partially torn UCL shown on the MRI might have been pre-existing.
And the results have supported his theory. Holmes posted a 2.55 ERA through his first three starts of the season and his fastball registered 95.1 mph during his final inning on Monday. He retired the first nine batters he faced on 29 pitches and then issued consecutive walks after allowing a leadoff single in the fourth.
“I started rushing too much and being too quick down the mound,” Holmes said.
Was Weiss’ hook too quick, too? Maybe in hindsight. But the numbers gave him reason to be hesitant to have Holmes go through the Marlins’ lineup a third time.
Opponents produced a .571 OPS against Holmes while facing him for the first time in a game last year. They had an .854 OPS in a second plate appearance against him and a .778 OPS when opposing him for a third time in a game.