Surprise!

Grant Holmes is now taking the series finale against the Colorado Rockies, with Chris Sale being moved to the Mets series to take on the tougher assignment. As long as Sale is okay with it, it seems a worthwhile move to give him an extra day along with trying to give the team a better chance against the better team. There’s probably something to be said about trying to guarantee the win today, but I’m not going to fight it too much here.

Holmes, meanwhile, has continued to improve since the beginning of the season, and he’s actually starting to settle into the middle(ish) of the rotation starter we were hoping to see. His 4.07 ERA belies an xFIP a half-run lower, but his xERA is right around his actual ERA. At this point, I think some of that is taking more into account the beginning of his season than what is happening now.

His first 3 months of the season:

After a rough start to the season where we talked about him not landing his breaking balls and being a bit of a mess, Holmes has been really good for about a month and a half now.

He has inverted the use of his slider and fastball …

And that probably helps get more whiffs, but it also demonstrates a bit more belief in his breaking pitches. Color me intrigued.

Opposing him will be Austin Gomber, making his first appearance of the season. He’s been out with a shoulder injury, and after a three very meh starts in the minors, the Rockies are desperate enough for pitching to just say screw it.

Gomber is basically the definition of a fifth starter. Over the past two seasons, his K rate hasn’t eclipsed 7 per 9 innings, but he will limit walks and get some groundballs. He’s not exactly *good* at either of those things, but he does enough to get the ball every five days.

His Statcast is less flattering.

And he has the most generic repertoire possible.

All of this means he’s likely to throw 8 shutout innings today, but I’m feeling optimistic for some reason.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Sunday, June 15th, 1:35 p.m. EDT

Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA

TV: FanDuel Sports South, Southeast, MLB Network (only out-of-market)

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan