New All-Star Clay Holmes falls apart in ninth inning as Reds come back to stun Yankees

On Sunday, Clay Holmes couldn’t find the words. When told he was a first-time All-Star, the Yankees closer just said “Sweet.” Tuesday night, Holmes could not find the strike zone. Uncharacteristically wild, Holmes was charged with four runs and his second blown save in as many games. Wandy Peralta came within one strike of bailing out Holmes and the Yankees, but Jonathan India lined a two-run single into shallow center field as the Reds rallied to beat the Yankees 4-3 at the Stadium.

It was the third straight loss for the Yankees (61-26), tying a season-high. The Reds (33-54) have won five in a row.

It was a shocking turn after Gerrit Cole had dominated for seven innings.

Tuesday, he scattered four hits, struck out 11 and walked one. He had 18 swings-and-misses, 10 on his slider.

Cole threw 113 pitches, one shy of his season high, to get through seven and give the bullpen a light night. He hit 101 miles an hour to strike out Mike Moustakas on his final pitch of the night.

And Holmes has been so dominant — until the last two.

Tuesday night it was clear he could not find his release point on his sinker, or the strike zone.

He walked Tommy Pham to lead off the ninth. Joey Votto singled and Holmes hit Tyler Stephenson. Tyler Naquin’s grounder got past a diving Isiah Kiner-Falefa  to score the Reds first run. Holmes then hit Kyle Farmer.

That was it for Holmes as Wandy Peralta had to come in and try to clean up the mess.

Peralta got a comebacker out of Donovan Solano and threw it to catcher Jose Trevino to get the first out at home. He coaxed a grounder out of Nick Senzel to third and Josh Donaldson got the force out at home.

The Yankees wasted no time Tuesday night. DJ LeMahieu led off the first with a walk and Gleyber Torres doubled. They both scored on Anthony Rizzo’s single to give Cole a lead to work with. They built on that in the third when Torres led off with a walk and scored on Josh Donaldson’s single.

That, however, was all they could muster.

Aaron Judge, who was out of the starting lineup for the third time in the last eight, pinch hit to lead off the bottom of the ninth. The slugger struck out.

That had to be a little bit of deja vu for Cole.

He went into Tuesday night’s game 1-8 with a 4.82 ERA in 13 career starts against Cincinnati, though he has not faced them since June 19, 2019 with the Astros.

Cole was starting on Tuesday night to try to save some Yankees pitching down the stretch.

By starting Cole, instead of Luis Severino on his regular turn, the Yankees ace is now on turn to get one more start before the All-Star break. That start will be against the Red Sox on Sunday, meaning he will not be able to participate in the All-Star Game. It’s a sacrifice to have Cole pitch in a division game, but also to keep Severino and Nestor Cortes healthy this season.

“We’ve done it a little bit already. Bumping Sevy back here to Wednesday prevents him from making two more before the break. We’ll slot him in on that weekend probably in Baltimore, probably do the same with Nestor,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said before Tuesday’s game. “They’ll probably go to the back end of the rotation coming out of the All Star break. So we’ve tried to be a little strategic with how we’ve done that with off days here and there. Also being mindful of Nestor and Sevy so it’s certainly something we’re paying attention to closely and we’ll continue to do it that way. And if at any point we have to skip or do whatever we have to do we’ll do that. But don’t feel that need right now.”

Severino, who pitched just 27.2 innings over the previous three years because of injuries, will take the mound on Wednesday with 84 innings pitched. Cortes, who has never pitched more than 93 innings in a season in the big leagues, will have 88.2 innings when he takes the mound on Thursday before his first trip to the All-Star Game.

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