Clay Holmes entered to grumbles. He left to an ovation.
Minutes later, the Yankees were celebrating another walk-off win.
Holmes entered a tie game Thursday in the top of the 10th with a man on second and quickly retired a pair of hitters to give the Yankees a chance to win it in the bottom of the inning on Juan Soto’s walk-off single.
“I felt good out there,” Holmes said after the 2-1 win over the Red Sox. “Really big effort by all the guys that pitched today. … Those guys mean a lot to me, and I just want to go out there and continue to pick them up.”
In the week-plus since being removed from the outright closer role following his 11th blown save of the year, Holmes has pitched three times and recorded scoreless outings twice — in the eighth inning of a 2-1 loss Sunday, then Thursday.
In between, he gave up a one-run lead in the seventh inning Wednesday against the Royals.
But the right-hander looked sharp Thursday, pitching for the second straight night, getting Ceddanne Rafaela to ground out and Jarren Duran to fly out, both in 0-2 counts.
“He wants the ball and is confident, rightfully so, in what he can do out there,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Despite some of the things that have gone on or some of the outings that have gotten away, I really like his frame of mind and ability to handle those inevitable ups and downs.”
Holmes’ 10th inning capped off a strong bullpen parade of Ian Hamilton, Tim Hill and Tommy Kahnle.
“Me and [Jose Trevino] talked about it last week: When we’re going to need Clay the most, he’s going to come through for us,” Nestor Cortes, who started the game Thursday, said. “Whether it’s the seventh, eighth, ninth, an extra-inning game, Clay has it in him. We’ve trusted him all year.”
Aaron Judge came within a few feet of ending his homer-less drought Thursday, but instead, it extended to a career-high 16 games.
He went 1-for-4 while also getting robbed of a hit on a diving play by Rafael Devers that started a double play.
“He’s got 51 homers,” Boone said. “Homers, even for guys like him, they still come in bunches and you’re going to have those stretches. I guess it’s amazing that he has avoided those, but that’s just a testament to how good of a hitter and how much power he has. Thought he had good at-bats tonight and almost got one.”
The Yankees outrighted lefty reliever Anthony Misiewicz onto the roster of Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after he cleared waivers upon being designated for assignment Monday.
Credit: Source link
