HOUSTON — Juan Soto was clearly angry, and you love to see it. What artist is ever happy with what they make? This is the curse of greatness.
The Mets clubhouse after their 3-1 Opening Day loss to the Astros was appropriately calm, fine, confident, whatever. It’s just one game. But then there was Soto, agonizing over his at-bat against Josh Hader.
“He got me,” a downcast Soto said of the game-ending strikeout that stranded the tying runs on base. “A pretty good pitch, a slider down and away that I wasn’t expecting.”
And what was he expecting?
“His best pitch,” Soto said. “His best pitch is the fastball, so I was thinking the fastball.”
Soto rarely guesses wrong, but it happened this time. His meek wave at Hader’s slider was an aberration, and one that left him brooding.
Immediately after the obligatory discussion with reporters, Soto left the clubhouse. He did not stop to smile, schmooze, chit chat or join his teammates in the food room. The rest of the Mets had perspective: It was a noble comeback, it fell short, what are you gonna do, let’s eat.
Soto was just like, dammit. I’m going home. He’s probably still thinking about it.
HOLMES WAS ALSO REFLECTIVE
In spring training, Clay Holmes threw his vaunted sinker 34 percent of the time. The former All-Star reliever was a starting pitcher now, and featured a wide array of pitches: four-seam fastball, sweeper, slider, cutter, changeup.
But when the bell rang for the regular season, 49 percent of Holmes’ pitches were sinkers. He threw the changeup — the big new pitch that wowed Mets officials in February and March — just four times. This was partly because the Astros are a righty-heavy offense, and Holmes’ changeup works best against lefties, but it was also because Holmes reverted to his comfort zone.
Spring training is not big league game speed. Spring training is when you throw whatever whenever, and try to sharpen the pitches. The regular season is when you have to sequence those pitches in a way that deceives and defeats batters. This is new for Holmes.
“Maybe the second time through [the lineup] there was room for the changeups more, but that’s something we’ll feel out more and learn as we go,” Holmes said.
Imagine yourself in this situation: Sinkers made you a star. Sinkers are your path toward success. You’re in the intensity of the moment, and what are you going to do? Probably what you’ve always done.
Another question that followed Holmes into his transition to the starting rotation was his ability to hold his command for multiple innings. This requires mental and physical endurance beyond what a reliever needs to find.
A veteran scout watching from the stands said that Holmes’ “delivery opened up front side a little more [mid-game, meaning that his] legs probably got tired.”
Holmes said that he lost his command, and probably some stamina, in the second and third innings — but regained them in the fourth. This is a positive indicator. Now he knows that he can lose it and get it back in the same game, a luxury that closers do not have.
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