NEW YORK \u2014 The news keeps getting worse for the New York Mets.<\/p>\n
In their 5-2 loss to the New York Yankees on Friday, starter Clay Holmes suffered a fracture in his right fibula that will keep him out \u201ca long time,\u201d manager Carlos Mendoza said.<\/p>\n
Holmes was hit in the right leg by Spencer Jones\u2019 111 mph low line drive in the fourth inning. The ball ricocheted into foul territory, allowing Jones to reach first base. Remarkably, Holmes stayed in the game not only to finish the fourth inning but also to get another out in the fifth.<\/p>\n
Only when he walked Jazz Chisholm Jr. and came out of the game did Holmes feel as if something was wrong in his leg. An X-ray confirmed a fracture.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a huge blow,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cHe\u2019s been one of the most consistent guys we\u2019ve had in our rotation. Yeah, it\u2019s a really big blow.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just sucks,\u201d Juan Soto said. \u201cClay is one of the hardest workers I\u2019ve seen in my career. It\u2019s really sad when it happens to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt says a lot about who he is to go back out there again that next inning with a broken leg,\u201d Jones, who has worked out with Holmes in the offseason in Nashville, Tenn., said. \u201cIt\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The injury to Holmes is a blow for so many reasons. First, he\u2019s been the Mets\u2019 best starting pitcher this season. He entered Friday with a 1.86 ERA, and New York was 5-3 in his starts (compared with 13-22 in everyone else\u2019s). The four runs he allowed in 4 1\/3 innings to his former team Friday were his most in a start this season.<\/p>\n
Second, the team\u2019s back half of the rotation was just starting to emerge from a season-long state of flux. Christian Scott has pitched better since his second call-up, and David Peterson has been sharper of late when paired with catcher Luis Torrens. But the injury to Kodai Senga and the struggles of Sean Manaea have already stretched the Mets\u2019 initial depth.<\/p>\n
Mendoza didn\u2019t point to any obvious replacements for Holmes when his next turn comes in the rotation on Wednesday in Washington. Manaea has been the Mets\u2019 long man all season, and the team anticipated he would eventually return to the rotation. But Manaea has posted a 6.56 ERA in that role.<\/p>\n
Jonah Tong is in Triple-A Syracuse and on the 40-man roster. Tong has had an inconsistent start to his minor-league season; after a solid run of four starts, he lasted just five outs his last time on the hill on Thursday, yielding seven runs.<\/p>\n
Jack Wenninger, who last pitched Tuesday, has posted sparkling numbers for Syracuse, with a 1.08 ERA through seven starts and 33 1\/3 innings. But even within that start to the season, the right-hander has struggled with his command: His walk rate is over 13 percent. That\u2019s not ideal ahead of a big-league debut.<\/p>\n
Of course, nothing has been ideal about the Mets\u2019 season. While Holmes is the first major loss the pitching staff has suffered this season, the offense has been beset by injuries from the first week of the year. Four of the Mets\u2019 nine Opening Day starters are currently on the injured list in Francisco Lindor, Jorge Polanco, Luis Robert Jr. and Francisco Alvarez. The only one with a timetable for his return is Alvarez, who is expected back in about two months.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s possible the Mets don\u2019t get the majority of those guys \u2014 or even any of those guys \u2014 back much before the All-Star break. For a team that is already eight games under .500 and whose schedule gets notably more difficult in June, the challenge of turning it around ahead of the trade deadline is getting steeper and steeper.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery team\u2019s got to deal with adversity, right?\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to keep going. We can\u2019t put our heads down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 The news keeps getting worse for the New York Mets. In their 5-2 loss to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,11142,462,475,82],"class_list":["post-672908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fantasy-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}