DETROIT — In an effort to fortify the bullpen, the Pirates recalled right-handed pitcher Clay Holmes from Triple-A Indianapolis to serve as the 26th man for the second game of Sunday's doubleheader against the Tigers at Comerica Park.
Holmes, 25, will make his major league debut if he takes the mound, and he provides Clint Hurdle with an additional long-relief option in the event the Pirates' bullpen is taxed in the afternoon game at 1:10 p.m. A ninth-round pick in 2011, Holmes had an outstanding finish to spring training, pitching three scoreless innings in a start against the Blue Jays at LECOM Park on March 11th.
However, he was chosen because of availability.
"Number one, he was available and hadn’t pitched because a number of the guys we had discussions about had just pitched," Hurdle said. "He had a spring where we saw some good things, but most importantly he was available for large volume and we like him."
With Steven Brault unlikely to be available on Sunday, Tyler Glasnow was the only long-relief option in the Pirates' bullpen, although Dovydas Neverauskas and Josh Smoker are both capable of pitching a maximum of two innings. That Holmes was recalled before Nick Kingham is not entirely a surprise.
Kingham struggled late in spring training, particularly with fastball command, and Holmes showed that his sinker can be particularly difficult for opposing hitters. He had a 3.36 ERA, 1.37 WHIP and averaged 7.9 strikeouts in 25 appearances, 24 of which were starts, for Triple-A Indianapolis last season. But he also averaged 4.7 walks per nine innings and has struggled with command at times since reaching Double-A Altoona in 2016.
Holmes, accompanied by many of his teammates, landed in Indianapolis on Saturday morning and was notified by Brian Esposito, the Indians' manager, in the afternoon that he needed to join the Pirates in Detroit for the final game of the series. Holmes said his discussion with the major-league staff at spring training last month indicated he could be one of the first pitchers recalled this season.
"They had some good things to say," Holmes said. "I remember finishing with a good outing there, Clint talked about how he liked my mentality on the mound and kind of how I was getting better each outing. Neal mentioned trying to be as focused as I could on the things I can control and do what I can do to be the first guy up. I hung on to that little hope, went down, took care of business and things worked out."
Hurdle told reporters Sunday morning that he'd prefer to not use Brault in either game of the doubleheader, but every other reliever should be at his disposal. Additionally, he didn't rule out a reliever throwing in both games.