Clay Holmes was in the midst of another terrific outing on Thursday night.
The Mets’ big right-hander cruised his way through the first three innings before allowing a leadoff solo homer to Jonathan Aranda in the top of the fourth.
He put together a scoreless top of the fifth and was handed a four-run lead as the Mets’ offense rallied against Tampa Bay starter Taj Bradley — but then his night came to an end.
Holmes was questionably pulled after throwing just 79 pitches on the evening.
Postgame, manager Carlos Mendoza explained that the plan from the beginning was to have him limited to just 85 pitches after he had a physically tough outing his last time out on the road in Colorado.
“Coming out of that inning in Colorado where he threw six innings he felt it,” he said. “We know that today was an outing we were going to keep him at that pitch count — we will continue to watch him and make adjustments as we go, but that’s part of his development.
“We’re playing the long game here — before the game we know that’s what he had today.”
Unfortunately the Mets’ bullpen wasn’t able to pick him up, as Paul Blackburn and Max Kranick were knocked around — allowing Tampa to retake the lead for good with a combined six runs on four hits.
The big knocks came from former Mets farmhand Jake Mangum and catcher Danny Jansen.
“Getting the four-run lead there I thought it was the right opportunity,” Mendoza said. “The secondary pitches from Blackburn were up in the zone — the changeup was flat and the sinker didn’t have much movement, he left everything up.
“We didn’t make a play there and the inning changed completely. Kranick’s execution, I feel like the conviction of his pitches — that 2-2 slider had too much of the plate to Jansen that got him the [two]-run homer.”
That was just Blackburn’s second relief appearance this season, and the sixth of his career.
“It’s been tough,” the righty admitted. “It’s completely different routines, I just haven’t found a routine for the bullpen — it’s a lot of trial and error when you got down there, I haven’t been down there for a long time so it’s just trial and error.”
Luckily for Blackburn, he’ll return to the rotation his next time out — starting in place of the injured Kodai Senga on Wednesday night against the Braves.
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