Grant Holmes is set to take the ball Tuesday against the Cubs at Truist Park, and it will be his first start since May 1. The Braves have spent 10 days without him in a game, even though his turn in the rotation was skipped last week in Seattle and Los Angeles.
That delay matters because Atlanta is one game behind in the NL Central race and is asking Holmes to help steady a staff that has carried the club to a 28-13 start. Holmes is 2-1 this season with a 4.34 ERA and a 1.31 WHIP, and he has made seven starts. His cleanest outing came April 3 at Arizona, when he threw six innings of one-hit ball, his only start this year without allowing at least one run.
Holmes’ last outing came May 1 against the Rockies in Denver, when he was tagged for six runs, five earned, on seven hits. Colorado jumped ahead 6-0 after Mickey Moniak led off the second inning with a solo home run, but Holmes settled in and got through the fifth without giving up another run. Atlanta still came back to win 8-6, a result that showed why manager Walt Weiss kept backing the right-hander even after the rough beginning.
“He stayed in the fight, man,” Weiss said, and he added that Holmes ended up going five innings and keeping the game in reach after a really tough first inning. Weiss also said Holmes was available out of the bullpen in a pinch against the Dodgers, a sign the Braves did not view his absence last week as anything more than a temporary reshuffle.
The reshuffle has been part of the plan for a rotation that has mixed full-time starters with swingmen. Holmes and Martín Pérez have filled that role while Chris Sale, Spencer Strider, Bryce Elder and JR Ritchie have formed a four-man group. It has worked better than anyone could reasonably expect: Atlanta’s starters own the best ERA in baseball at 3.03 and are holding opponents to a.206 average, also the best mark in the majors.
Ritchie is next in line. He is scheduled to make his fourth major league start Wednesday after allowing seven earned runs in 17⅓ innings. His most recent outing, May 4 in Seattle, lasted five innings and included six walks, a night that left him searching for answers. “Gonna have to go back and look at some video and see what I was doing,” Ritchie said, adding that there could be any number of things wrong and that he was trying to be too fine early instead of attacking hitters.
Sale follows Thursday against the Cubs, and his numbers are the ones that usually give Atlanta a chance to control the night from the start. He is 6-2 with a 2.20 ERA and 56 strikeouts in 49 innings. Elder has been just as sharp in his own way, going 4-1 with a 1.81 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP. Against a Cubs team leading the NL Central, the Braves are handing the ball to a group that has turned uncertainty into production, and Holmes is back in the middle of it.
