{"id":36216,"date":"2025-02-24T01:57:15","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T01:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=36216"},"modified":"2025-02-24T01:57:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T01:57:15","slug":"mets-clay-holmes-perfect-in-grapefruit-league-debut-most-excited-ive-been-to-pitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=36216","title":{"rendered":"Mets&#8217; Clay Holmes perfect in Grapefruit League debut: \u2018Most excited I\u2019ve been to pitch&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\">\n<article id=\"arc-XGU6LFSCTNBHVESNMNJLYMHEIE\" data-type=\"article\">\n<div>\n<figure><figcaption><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/02\/newspress-collage-ovlm3tt92-1740036588599.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;1740018619\" alt=\"Clay Holmes to start Mets' spring training opener: 'Great spot'\" \/><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p id=\"SDOJTPQQOZAXJJKODLFBCS7ZOA\"><b>PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. \u2014<\/b> Mets\u2019 right-hander Clay Holmes was perfect in his first start since making the transition from a (Yankees) closer.<\/p>\n<p id=\"BMJQ2BAB4FCNDIZYLDF5FO3WA4\">Against the Houston Astros at Clover Park, Holmes pitched three innings. He didn\u2019t allow a baserunner and struck out three batters, throwing 35 pitches (26 strikes).<\/p>\n<p id=\"6UIAUBR4FJGD7N22OYTVM3GA7Y\">\u201cThis is the most excited I\u2019ve been to pitch. It\u2019s definitely been up there,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cNew team, first start, kind of in a real game, in a while. &#8230; Just refelcting on that and just realizing where I\u2019m at and the opportunity that I have and who I\u2019m doing it with, it was an exciting day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"XZTAHZUKHRFY5LTRFAGTWWFZ6A\">Holmes sat in the Mets dugout for a little while before he had to go up to the mound to start the first inning. He wanted to absorb the energy from the players around him.<\/p>\n<p id=\"MZKYSR267JEXJESGMBXMJBUJW4\">It only took Holmes nine pitches to work out of the first inning. In the second inning, he recorded his first strikeout against catcher C\u00e9sar Salazar, who challenged the ninth pitch of his at-bat, a 97 mph sinker that kissed the inside corner \u2014 the call was upheld.<\/p>\n<p id=\"3CVKKTYYSJF4HETFAOTUSZVZOM\">Holmes debuted his new pitch, a change-up, in-game for the first time and was pleased with what he saw.<\/p>\n<p id=\"3PGLSO752VFTLITYWMNMSZLWK4\">\u201cI threw it right-on-right (to) Zack Short (who) got a swing and miss there, got the fly ball out to left in the first inning,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cIt was nice to get that in and just see how it\u2019s playing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"MZ5MPSFHWZDMJLWXWRSEORZOJM\">In all, Holmes threw the change-up seven times, generating five swings, according to Baseball Savant. The pitch averaged 88 mph, a good change of speed from his sinker (95 mph) and four-seamer (96.6 mph).<\/p>\n<p id=\"FH6VGJOJ3NGYBLML3R52LMAZQE\">Holmes finished his day by heading back to the bullpen and throwing another 15 pitches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Yankees closer Clay Holmes makes Mets debut as a starter on Saturday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":36217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mets&#039; Clay Holmes perfect in Grapefruit League debut: \u2018Most excited I\u2019ve been to pitch&#039; - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=36216\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mets&#039; 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