BOSTON — When Clay Holmes signed on to be a starting pitcher again with the Mets, he was already prepared for the challenge. Staring wasn’t exactly new for him, but things have changed since he had last toed the rubber as starter for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Holmes already had an idea of how he wanted to structure his workload and what his days in between starts would look like. When he started talking to the team trainers and pitching coaches, he refined that routine.
It’s what he credits for helping him post a 3.14 ERA over his first nine starts.
“I kind of knew how I wanted to work out: lower body, throw a bullpen, upper body and arm care,” Holmes recently told the Daily News. “A lot of that was kind of planned out and talked about early on. There are a lot of people that kind of follow a certain kind of routine. Now, there are definitely some differences, but it kind of gives us a good template, kind of knowing where to start from. That’s kind of what I went with. And sure, there’s some minor tweaks along the way, but generally, I kind of made a schedule, and I kind of just wanted to follow it and let my body adapt to it.”
It surprises no one around the Mets that he’s adapted well. Manager Carlos Mendoza, assistant pitching coach Desi Druschel and catcher Luis Torrens knew Holmes from their time with the Yankees and they knew he had the work ethic and temperament necessary to make the switch.
“As a reliever, it’s a different mindset. You come in and you’ve got to get three outs without giving up a run or something like that because the game could be over,” Mendoza said. “So I feel like there’s a lot of adjustments. I think it’s understanding that it’s not a big deal if you don’t have your A-stuff on a particular day. You’ve got to find a way to just give the team a chance to win a baseball game. And he’s done that, really, really, really well, and I’m excited about that.”
It was a collaborative effort to work out a schedule for Holmes, and the right-hander has implemented elements that other pitchers have had success with. One thing he’s adopted has been throwing a bullpen on the third day after a start instead of the second.
Starters used to throw on the second day, but with so many teams now trying to give pitchers an extra day or rest or experimenting with six-man rotations, many have found that pushing a bullpen back one day sets them up better to start on the fifth or the sixth day.
“Just kind of a way to keep things consistent, really,” Holmes said. “That’s kind of the big thing. Going into this, I wanted to put something down and just stay consistent. And I think that’s kind of one of the biggest, underrated things — just consistency.”
Tuesday at Fenway Park, Holmes will make his 10th start of the season. A few months ago, he said he wasn’t taking a “long-term view” of the conversion from reliever to starter, but there’s no question that he’s been consistent enough to stay in a starting role.
VIENTOS BACK AT DH
Mark Vientos made his fifth start of the season at DH on Monday against the Boston Red Sox, with Brett Baty getting the nod at third base again. It was the second start in three games at DH for the third baseman, who has struggled with his defense at the hot corner as of late, and hasn’t been driving the ball like he did last season when he hit 27 home runs.
Vientos is still going through his entire pregame routine at third base whether he’s in the lineup as a DH or not, which helps him stay ready and engaged at the position. Offensively, the Mets aren’t concerned as long as he stays consistent in his work and his approach at the plate.
“Every player will go through stretches like this, and once they hit one, they’re going to come in bunches,” Mendoza said. “That’s what hitters with power usually do. I don’t want him to go out there trying to chase homers, I want him to continue to have a good approach, control the strike zone, get pitches to hit and put good swings on them. Then they’ll come, but yeah, it’s been a little bit on and off.”
Vientos is slugging just .386 this season, and only .370 in the month of May. He’s hit only one double and home run this month.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Right-hander Ryne Stanek and center fielder Tyrone Taylor were given clean bills of health after getting banged up over the weekend at Yankee Stadium. Stanek struggled with some knee pain but was fine Monday. Taylor, who had a cramp in his calf, was in the lineup Monday against the Red Sox.
