QUEENS, NY — For the first time since joining the Mets and becoming a starting pitcher, Clay Holmes was undone by the long ball.
Entering Wednesday night having allowed just one home run in his first eight starts of 2025, the veteran righty was taken out of Citi Field twice, as the Pittsburgh Pirates avoided a sweep by beating the Mets 4-0.
Both round-trippers were of the two-run variety: one from Matt Gorski during a torrential downpour in the second and the other from Jared Triolo in the fifth.
“Some tough hops there,” Holmes said. “Losing grip on the ball, trying to make pitches, and I went to the slider one too many times here. It was the best thing I could control and then I wound up getting beat with it.”
It was the first time since March that a Mets starter allowed multiple home runs in a start, and just the second time that had happened this season.
Holmes went six innings, yielding seven hits with four strikeouts and a walk to pick up his second loss of the season.
The Mets (28-15) had their three-game win streak snapped as they head across town to the Bronx to meet the Yankees.
While the Mets chased Pirates starter Bailey Falter after just 3.2 innings — he walked five and allowed three hits — they did little to take advantage of their chances, leaving the bases loaded without scoring twice in the first four innings.
Amidst a heavy downpour with no inclination of a delay, Holmes was touched up for just his second home run of the season by Groski with two outs in the second inning that made its way through the wall of rain and into the left-field seats. This after two borderline strike calls that were deemed balls by home plate umpire Carlos Torres.
“There were two calls we didn’t get there,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “0-2, full ball in the strike zone, we didn’t get that one. Then another that clips the strike zone, we didn’t get that one. Then the rain starts coming down pretty hard, and he lost the feel for the ball there.”
As the Pirates’ first baseman rounded the bases, home-plate umpire Carlos Torres asked for a towel to wipe down a water-logged home plate. In between innings, the grounds crew did extensive work to lay new dirt on the infield while the rain subsided.
“At that point, it’s in the umpire’s hands,” Mendoza said. “There’s nothing we can do other than create awareness and bring it to their attention, but at that point, it’s just their call.”
Triolo doubled Pittsburgh’s advantage in the top of the fifth inning when he jumped on the first pitch he saw from Holmes and deposited it into the left-field seats to make it a 4-0 game. Ji Hwan Bae reached on a perfectly-placed drag bunt down the first-base line.
The Mets generated just three hits off four Pirates relievers, and were shut out for just the second time this season and the first time since April 9, when they lost 5-0 to the Miami Marlins.
“We controlled the strike zone against their starter, a few walks, couple of bases-loaded situations, but we couldn’t come through,” Mendoza said. “Once they got to the bullpen, it becomes a bullpen game and they got the matchups they wanted… We didn’t create many opportunities there.”
