Holmes certainly pitched well enough to win this game if he didn’t have to go up against the red-hot Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Alas, he came out of the gate ready to go against this tough Dodgers lineup. He struck out Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman consecutively to begin the game and retired the first 10 batters he faced overall in order. Then he fell victim to a mini-rally where the Dodgers got two hits on deflected grounders followed by a walk and sacrifice fly. Then, Betts took him deep in his third at-bat, but this was still an amazing start. His slider command was excellent and he buried tons of them on the back-foot of all the talented left-handed hitters in this order. Overall, it was great to seem him pitch well coming off a poor start against the Diamondbacks and he will look to keep the good times rolling in his next scheduled start against the Reds.

Holmes struggled with his command, as he allowed three homers to Eugenio Suarez, and also issued three walks with 57-of-93 pitches landing for strikes. It’s a far cry from the strong effort he had against Minnesota where he gave up one run over 6 2/3 innings, and the first time he’s allowed more than four runs in an outing this year. Holmes will attempt to bounce back and lower his shaky 4.50 ERA when he faces the Dodgers next weekend.

Holmes struck out seven but also walked four on the day, which led him to throw 105 pitches before the end of the sixth inning. As you’d imagine, Holmes’ command was not impeccable in this one, as he failed to register a 60 percent strike rate on any of his three main pitches. However, he did post a fine 24 percent whiff rate thanks to his slider and curveball. Holmes had introduced a new changeup in spring training, but we haven’t seen much of that during the regular season. It would be an interesting addition since his fastball is a pretty average pitch, and having more than two secondaries to support it would make us feel better about Holmes long-term. He’s a risky streamer next week against the Diamondbacks.

Holmes was staked to an eight-run lead by the fifth inning and carried a no-hit bid into the sixth before serving up a leadoff homer to light-hitting Myles Straw. He was charged with two additional runs before departing with two outs in the eighth. He struck out four and only issued two walks in the longest start of his career. It was an extremely impressive performance, which certainly helps further cement his spot in Atlanta’s crowded rotation. He’ll carry a strong 3.78 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 15/10 K/BB ratio across 16 2/3 innings (three starts) into a home matchup on Sunday against the Twins.