Subway Series: Yankees' Cam Schlittler tosses gem; Mets' Clay Holmes suffers fractured right fibula
Mets starting pitcher Clay Holmes is checked on after being hit in the leg during a game against the Yankees at Citi Field on Friday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
It was a bizarre, borderline apocalyptic scene: Citi Field was filled with smoke about 20 minutes after the Mets dropped the opener of the Subway Series to the Yankees, 5-2, on Friday evening — the result of a fireworks show that belied the very uncelebratory mood in the home clubhouse.
Mr. and Mrs. Met danced to an ’80s ballad on the warning track in front of mostly empty stands. A couple of hundred feet away, manager Carlos Mendoza delivered the most devastating blow of the night.
Clay Holmes suffered a fractured right fibula when he was nailed by Spencer Jones’ 111.1-mph line drive to start the fourth inning and is “going to be down a long time,” Mendoza said.
Holmes pitched to seven more batters, striking out three of them, before being replaced. “He said he was fine [when it happened],’’ Mendoza said. “That was the crazy part.”
“The guy’s a dog,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s physically tough, but he’s also tough between the ears.”
Cam Schlittler was nearly untouchable, allowing one run, two hits and two walks with nine strikeouts, furthering his growing Cy Young Award case. The strikeouts were a season high and he has 152 for his career — the second most (behind Masahiro Tanaka) by a Yankee through his first 24 games.
The loss — mostly keyed by a three-run third as the Yankees (28-17) scored their first four runs with two outs — was a gut punch to the momentum the Mets (18-26) had established while going 8-4 in their last 12 games, all against sub-.500 teams. But there was solace in knowing the offense failed where so many others have too against the Schlittler buzzsaw.
That moral victory, though, evaporated once Holmes got his X-ray. The injury will sideline him for months.
“It’s tough,” said Juan Soto, who hit his 250th career homer on an 0-and-2 fastball from Schlittler in the seventh. “He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen in my career. He’s working every time, every moment . . . It’s unbelievable what he’s doing, but it’s really sad that it happened to him.”
The Mets managed only one hit off Schlittler through the first six innings, a streak broken by Soto’s 393-foot bomb, which drew the Mets to within 4-1. At 27 years and 202 days old, Soto became the youngest player to reach the milestone since Albert Pujols and the 10th youngest in MLB history.
Schlittler was pulled after walking Brett Baty with two outs in the seventh. Marcus Semien notched an infield hit off Fernando Cruz to bring A.J. Ewing to the plate, representing the tying run. A wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position, but Ewing, who’s had an otherwise charmed start to his MLB career since being called up earlier this week, flied out to right.
Ben Rice tacked on his 14th homer, a solo shot against Craig Kimbrel in the ninth, and Baty had a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the inning.
The Yankees cracked Holmes in the third, scoring three runs. Two-out singles to right by Rice and Aaron Judge and an RBI double to right by Cody Bellinger on a 1-and-2 pitch made it 1-0. Jazz Chisholm Jr. then smacked a grounder past a diving Mark Vientos for a two-run double.
Holmes was pulled after walking Chisholm with one out in the fifth. Austin Warren coaxed a groundout from Ryan McMahon, but Jones delivered a line-drive single for a 4-0 lead.
It was Holmes’ worst line of the year: four runs, seven hits and two walks with eight strikeouts in 4 1⁄3 innings. It was his shortest start since Sept. 16, the most runs he has allowed since Sept. 10 and the most hits he has allowed since July 30.
The wound there is twofold. First off, the Mets’ rotation already is shorthanded without Kodai Senga, and their pitching, which came into the day with a 2.67 ERA in May, is the real reason they’ve been able to put together a fairly successful stretch. In the long term, if the team continues to lose, Holmes could have been a valuable bargaining chip at the trade deadline.
Mostly, though, he’s been a remarkably steady presence on an unsteady team. Francisco Lindor and Luis Robert Jr. aren’t particularly close to returning and Soto is battling injuries — he went on the injured list with a calf strain earlier in the season, fouled a ball off his foot earlier this week, experienced wrist discomfort on a swing in the fourth and also has experienced elbow discomfort.
“We’ve just got to try our best,” Soto said. “I wish [Holmes] a speedy recovery.”
As for his own ailments, “It’s just a little discomfort . . . so I’m just trying to get back on track.”
Mendoza noted that Holmes has been “huge” for the Mets this year.
“He’s been one of the most consistent guys that we’ve got in that rotation,” he said.
No longer. Now the Mets have one more gaping hole to fill and two more games against a crosstown rival prepared to pounce on their wounded.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
