Concern for Clay Holmes continues to grow after he faltered once again on Friday night, allowing two runs in the eighth to turn a 3-2 lead into an eventual 4-3 loss in St. Louis, but Aaron Boone still liked what he saw from his struggling closer.
“I really thought Clay started commanding it again,” Boone said. “Did a really good job with Goldschmidt to get the comebacker, and same with Arenado…I didn’t feel like it was a loss of command there.”
Holmes did appear to be in command early in the inning, dotting the outside corner with his hard sinker and getting weak contact from the Cardinals big bats in Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, only Arenado’s turned into a weak infield single, and things unraveled from there.
A walk and a go-ahead double from Paul DeJong and his lowly .528 OPS suddenly reverted Holmes back to the startling numbers he has put up of late, not the dominant closer he was through much of the season.
“Tough inning,” Boone said. “Especially when I thought Clay threw the ball a lot better and was in command of what he was doing out there, for the most part.”
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