Weird things keep happening to Holmes during his starts. Last week, he had to deal with a rain delay in the middle of the first inning that forced an awkward stop and restart to his outing he had to work through. Here, he took a hard line drive off the ankle and his only poor inning of the game followed immediately. Still, he was able to dig deep for six innings and his second quality start of the season. His strikeouts have dried up a bit over his last two starts, but again each had some strange, mitigating circumstances. Also, he’s commanded his sinker much better over those two starts then he had all season to that point. When that sinker is working, he’s getting more weak contact and ground balls earlier in at-bats, which was more the case last start than in this one where St. Louis had nine hard-hit balls and more than a few of which were in the air. Nevertheless, he now has a 2.95 ERA on the season and looks like a very capable starting pitcher. He’s scheduled to face the Cubs next time out.

Holmes had faced just two batters, recording an out and giving up a base hit before the game was delayed by rain for nearly an hour. He came back out scattered just four total hits over five scoreless innings while striking out two. Holmes would end his day at just 70 pitches, likely due to the extended delay. The 32-year-old right-hander will take a 2.64 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, and a 36/13 K/BB ratio across 30 2/3 innings into a start against the Diamondbacks in New York on Thursday.

Holmes, who benefitted from Brandon Nimmo robbing Jordan Walker of a solo homer, struck out six before leaving with a two-run lead. Alas, that lead disappeared in the seventh. The Mets went on to win anyway, but Holmes remained 2-1 with a 3.16 ERA. He’ll face the Nationals next weekend.

Holmes allowed two hits, walked two and struck out eight. He’s been too inefficient to pitch deep into games thus far, but he’s 2-1 with a 3.66 ERA and the Mets have won three of his four starts. He’ll face the Cardinals next.