Grant Holmes looks to help Braves beat the Reds

The Braves enter a matchup in Cincinnati after a series with alternating offensive output. Grant Holmes, carrying a 3.78 ERA, starts against Chris Paddack, who has not won yet and owns a 6.86 ERA. Holmes has been inconsistent, with effectiveness dropping after seeing lineups twice, leading to bullpen readiness. His most recent start included five innings, ten strikeouts, and two walks, though he allowed two solo homers. Earlier, he held the Red Sox scoreless for six innings. His xERA is 4.17, but hitters generate a 44.4% hard-hit rate, ranking among the bottom qualified pitchers. Reds hitters have limited career exposure to Holmes, yet several have performed well, including Friedl with two homers in four at-bats.

"Today Grant Holmes and his 3.78 ERA will face off against Chris Paddack who has yet to bring home his first victory and has a 6.86 ERA. It is still early enough in the season that ERA can be at least a bit deceiving, but the Braves do look primed to do some damage with the bats today."

"Grant Holmes has had an up and down season thus far and a lot of it has to do with him not being able to stay effective after seeing the lineup after two times through, which is why you are seeing pitchers like Didier Fuentes being on the ready every time he pitches. It could be argued that Holmes may have started to turn a corner in a positive direction."

"Last start he lasted five innings and struck out ten hitters to only two walks against the then MLB leader in runs scored (Nationals). He did give up two solo shots on six hits though. His start before that looked promising too with 6.0 innings of zero run ball against the Red Sox where he struck out four and walked one on five hits."

"His underlying metric show that his expected ERA (xERA) is 4.17 which is not terrible and not too far off from his actual ERA. What is concerning though is that hitters have a hard-hit rate of 44.4 percent, which is good for bottom 19.0 percent of qualified pitchers. No one on the Reds has more than seven at-bats against Holmes in their careers, but most of the players that have faced him have had success."

Read at Battery Power