Port St. Lucy – Clay Holmes went to the mound for the sixth inning on Friday to conquer mental fatigue.
The right-hander, a former savior who reached the starter for the Mets this spring, felt the full brunt of his new role, even if his arm showed no signs of obsession.
“Physically, I was in a pretty good place,” Holmes said after the Mets beat 3-2 at an exhibition at Clover Park. “But the guys, six people feel like you're selling there forever. That's just mental stuff.”
Holmes recorded one innings, stretching to 88 pitches and being deleted.
Beyond the scoreless inning of 5¹/₃, he allowed two hits and hit eight in three walks.
He finished grapefruitrug with 0.93 ERA.
The game will count the next time Holmes pitches – Houston's season opener on Thursday.
Holmes, who became the Yankees All-Star Blessing, opened his last regular season game with the Pirates in 2018.
“I wasn't so excited to attack the season or attack the next day after a while,” Holmes said. “I just think it gave me some excitement.
For Holmes, it took two months to reach this point.
He arrived at camp in mid-January and followed a plan designed for him by the Mets staff.
By the time the spring training game began, Holmes had already expanded to three innings.
“I think it's just a testament to having a very thoughtful and intentional plan about this,” Holmes said. “It's kind of great to see that it's coming to be a reality and be in such a good place right now.”
That dedication in part led to the decision of coach Carlos Mendoza to tabbed him for the start of the opening day.
Holmes will be the Mets' fifth different opening day starter of the past five seasons.
Holmes has a lot to like, but Mendoza also takes a measured approach to what he sees.
“Pretty good, I'm not going to lie, but it's spring training,” Mendoza said when asked to evaluate Holmes' exhibition season. “He has to translate it into the regular season, but he's really in a good position. He's really in a good place and he's keeping getting better. It's a pretty impressive camp.”
For Holmes, the biggest challenge was adjusting to work multiple times through the batting order.
Rather than using the rescuer mentality of consistently trying to overwhelm the batsman, Holmes had to develop a plan.
“I'm thinking about how I pitched the batter last time and how I pitched him next time,” Holmes said. “These are things you really don't do as a rescuer. I think mental processing can be tiring, so you can feel things for a long time. Physically, I'm in a good place.”
Arrived on a three-year contract worth $38 million, Holmes is asked to help carry a rotation that doesn't have Sean Mania (dlanted) and Frankie Montas (high-end rat tension) to begin the season.
He said that throwing the first pitch of the Mets' new season would be “special.”
“You can see there are so many people out there who really care about it. It's really working so hard, and you know the opportunity to put yourself in front of us to be the best player they can,” Holmes said. “I look forward to attacking from the first day.”
