ATLANTA — Grant Holmes believed he was on the verge of a game to remember Sunday afternoon when the 29-year-old right-hander reached 10 strikeouts for the first time in his MLB career — and it was only the fifth inning.
“It was a special moment,” Holmes said.
It was difficult for the Atlanta Braves to explain how their starting pitcher’s milestone game, which began with five hitless innings and ended with a career-best 15 strikeouts, was wasted in a 10-1 loss to the Colorado Rockies. The visitors avoided being swept in the three-game series at Truist Park after being outscored a combined 16-5 in the first two matchups Friday and Saturday.
Holmes (3-6) did not allow a hit or a walk through five innings but trailed 1-0 thanks to his fielding and throwing errors on Ryan Ritter’s grounder in the third. After the Braves tied the game in the sixth, Holmes gave up Ryan McMahon’s go-ahead homer in the seventh. In all, he gave up three runs (two earned), two hits and two walks in 6 1/3 innings.
“It sucks to waste that start from him,” Braves first baseman Matt Olson said.
It came one game after Atlanta right-hander Spencer Strider’s 13 strikeouts in a 4-1 win over the Rockies, who struck out 19 times in all Saturday — which set single-game franchise records for Colorado hitters and Braves pitchers. Colorado struck out just once against Atlanta’s bullpen Sunday.
“I didn’t see that coming,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said of Holmes’ stellar outing.
That wasn’t the only surprise of the weekend.
“I felt good about putting runs on the board, too,” Snitker said, referring to the team’s strong hitting that helped Atlanta clinch its second straight series win after dropping six consecutive series.
Atlanta is 31-39 and third in the National League East Division, 13 games behind the first-place New York Mets, and missed a chance to roll through the weekend against the NL West’s historically bad Rockies (14-57), who a day earlier set the mark for the worst record through 70 games in Major League Baseball’s modern era.
The Rockies have lost 22 of 23 series this season, with a sweep of the host Miami Marlins at the start of the month the anomaly.
“We’re starting to click here and get this thing rolling,” Snitker said. “We just can’t get off the mat and get anything rolling for any extended time, and we haven’t all year.”
Atlanta started the season 0-7 and had another seven-game losing streak before winning four of five games heading into Sunday.
Atlanta relievers Enyel De Los Santos and José Ruiz combined to give up seven runs after Holmes’ exit.
Even so, his strong start added to the Braves’ confidence in a rotation that includes reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach and Bryce Elder in addition to Holmes and Strider.
“Those guys are really good,” Holmes said of his fellow starters. “… I feel like going forward, if we stay like we are, we’ll be in a pretty good position.”
The 35 combined strikeouts by Braves pitchers in back-to-back games fell one shy of the MLB record of 36 by the Boston Red Sox on April 29-30, 1986, with the Seattle Mariners the opponent both days.
Colorado right-hander Austin Gomber allowed two hits and no runs in five innings in his season debut Sunday. Jake Bird (2-1), who allowed one run in the sixth, picked up the win.
After McMahon’s homer put the Rockies up for good, Jordan Beck added a two-run double in a six-run seventh — Colorado’s most in a road inning since a six-run eighth against the Kansas City Royals on June 2, 2023.
The Braves are off Monday before hosting the Mets in a three-game series that starts Tuesday. Atlanta tweaked its rotation, moving Sale from his scheduled start Sunday so he could follow Schwellenbach against the Mets, with Strider planned for the third game.
The Mets will be looking to rebound after being swept at home by the American League’s Tampa Bay Rays.
“We’ve got to turn the page and get ready to play Tuesday,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said after Sunday’s 9-0 loss.
New York still has a 2 1/2-game lead over the second-place Philadelphia Phillies, who won the NL East last year to end a run of six straight division titles for the Braves. Atlanta secured a wild-card berth in the regular-season finale to push its streak of postseason appearances to seven, but making it to eight will still require plenty of work.
“We know when you look at this team on paper, that’s a really good team,” Mendoza said of the Braves, who will visit New York for a four-game series June 23-26.
“We’ve got a chance to make up some ground,” Olson said. “It will be our first time seeing them.”