The Mets’ pitching continues getting the job done.
Clay Holmes put together another strong effort on Monday afternoon — working around traffic to help keep the team in the ballgame as they struggled to get anything going against their former teammate, Adrian Houser.
The White Sox scratched across a run in the top of the fourth when the first two batters of the inning reached on a walk and a double and then Andrew Benintendi lined a sacrifice fly to shallow left field.
But Holmes limited them there with some help from his defense.
Pete Alonso made a beautiful diving play with two outs and a man on third in the top of the first and a few innings later Jeff McNeil layed out to rob Mike Tauchman on a leadoff single in the sixth.
Chicago did get a rally going against Holmes later that inning — loading the bases with two singles and a walk, but José Butto entered and got young catcher Edgar Quero to ground out to McNeil to end the inning.
“I felt good today,” Holmes said after stretching out to 100 pitches for the first time. “I had a chance to work a little deeper, but that sixth inning I started getting some traffic and the pitch count got up. Overall, I was able to get some groundballs early and settled in a little bit.”
Huascar Brazobán then found himself thrown into some trouble in the seventh, as Josh Rojas drew a walk and then advanced to second on a stolen base, but the right-hander escaped the threat with some help from another diving play by Alonso.
Brandon Nimmo made a running snag to help Brazoban keep the leadoff man off the bases in the eighth.
Later that inning, with a man on and two outs, Carlos Mendoza turned to lefty José Castillo to put on the finishing touches and, after walking Austin Slater on 11 pitches he struck out the next batters with just three.
Edwin Diaz then kept his recent dominance going — working around a walk in a easy top of the ninth before the Mets rallied to walk it off.
“Big day for the bullpen,” Holmes said on their dominance behind him. “We had a few guys come in at different points with runners on and shutting the door there was huge — that really kept us in it and gave us a chance to win the game.”
As a group, they combined to put together 3.1 more hitless innings.
“They were throwing strikes and making pitches when they needed,” Mendoza said. “Butto came in with the bases loaded, gets to a 3-2 count and was able to execute a pitch to get out of the inning then goes back out.
“Brazobán comes in and is able to give us a couple ups on a day I was trying to keep it at 20 pitches. Castillo comes in and gets a huge out and then Sugar attacking. Overall, those guys coming out the bullpen just making big pitches and attacking hitters.”
