Against his first batter of the night, Jamestown right fielder Michael Main, Holmes fell behind 3-0 as it was clearly noticeable he was attacking the outer half of the plate. Unfortunately he was missing low with his fastball and was not able to get some close calls on the outside black of the plate. This was clearly evident by his battery mate Jacob Stallings' body language. Holmes gutted it out to fill up the count with two fastballs on the low outside corner and eventually got Main to fly out deep to left on a fastball high in the zone. Holmes continued that trend of falling behind in the count 2-0 against his other two hitters in the first. In the first situation, Jamestown left field Cody Keefer sat on a 3-1 fastball on the low outer half and poked a base hit (the only to get hits against Holmes) to Spikes right fielder Jesus Vazquez. Then he mucked it out in a great seven pitch at-bat by Jamestown second baseman Anthony Gomez after falling behind 3-1 again. Holmes ended up getting Gomez to line out to left fielder Jon Schwind on a lower half fastball and double off Keefer at first. He finished the first throwing 18 pitches, nine of them for strikes.
In the second Holmes was the polar opposite of his first inning. He worked quickly ala Pirates starter Jeff Karstens and was very efficient with his pitches, only needing 8 pitches (5 strikes, 3 balls) to get out of the second. His first batter, Jamestown first baseman Viosergy Rosas, was pounded on the low inner half with the first signs of off-speed stuff from Holmes. He ended up getting the big first baseman Rosas to softly ground out to second baseman Jodaneli Carvajal on a well placed changeup on the lower half of the zone.
After the big four-run offense outburst by his teammates in the bottom half of the second and a commanding 5-0 lead, Holmes could have pretty much went in cruise control. He started off the third walking Jamestown backstop Sharif Othman on four straight balls with back-to-back pitches nearly hitting Othman. Holmes immediately turned the cheek and got scrappy shortstop Yeison Hernandez to ground into a double play. He worked quick like in the second and had great location sitting in the low outside corner during the entirety of the four pitch at-bat. Then he left a fastball a little bit up in the inner half but was thankful to get Juancito Martinez to ground out on a missile to third baseman D.J. Crumlich.
In his second time through the Jammers order, Holmes started off the fourth keeping the ball low in the zone to get lead-off hitter Michael Main to roll over and ground out on a change up. Then Cody Keefer connected on his second hit of the game with a fastball in the low inner half of the zone. Holmes then got Anthony Gomez to ground out to shortstop Chris Diaz on a perfectly placed fastball on the low outside corner. Then he finished the inning with a bang by getting Anthony Gomez swinging on a perfectly placed changeup. He threw 15 pitches in the fourth, nine for strikes and six for balls, and was good at locating pitches down in the zone early in counts.
Now the fifth went by so fast that I was just barely able to get a quick enough breakdown. He was so quick and efficient that he only threw six total pitches in the fifth; five of them for strikes. He got Michael Vaughn to fly out to right fielder Jesus Vazquez on two pitches for the first out. Then, he got Pedro Mendoza to also fly out to Jesus Vazquez on a ball he left too high in the zone but got caught at the warning track. Sharif Othman then hit a slow dribbler back to Holmes in two pitches for Holmes' final out of the game.
Holmes finished his night going five scoreless innings only allowing two hits and walking one while striking out one to notch his 5th win of the season. He threw 59 total pitches in his five innings of work with 32 strikes and 27 balls. Most importantly, he only faced one batter over the minimum for five innings. If you looked at his pitching line, you would not be able to see his control issues he had tonight. I counted two uncorked wild pitches and then two back-to-back high and inside pitches he almost hit Juancito Martinez with. But it is definitely evident the young righty Holmes has the talent to be one of the best pitching prospects in the Pirates system. He uses his large six foot five frame to get on top of hitters and his knack of keeping most of his pitches down in the zone allowed him to get seven of his 15 outs via the ground ball.