Grant Holmes flirted with a no-hitter on the South Side, leaning on a heavy slider to stifle Chicago’s bats and rescue Atlanta from a frustrating winless drought.
The Atlanta Braves made a pit stop to the South Side of Chicago on Thursday afternoon. The Braves and White Sox played one game to make up for a rainout earlier in the season.
Atlanta was fresh off being swept by the Minnesota Twins on the road in a three-game slate. It was the first time the Braves were swept since their June 22-24 series against the San Diego Padres.
Right-hander Grant Holmes got the start for Atlanta and threw one of the best games of his career. Over six innings, Holmes allowed just one hit while keeping the White Sox off the board. He did a great job inducing soft contact, even though he recorded only three strikeouts.
He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, inducing a lot of groundouts and soft fly balls, while also benefiting from his fair share of good luck on hard-hit balls. Chicago had only reached base twice in those six innings, both coming on walks.
Holmes was taken out of the game in the seventh after giving up a single to Andrew Benintendi shortly after walking Miguel Vargas, who led off the inning.
It was the second time this season Holmes has thrown six scoreless frames while allowing just one hit. He did so early in the season against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Outside of an ugly start in his last appearance against the Diamondbacks of all teams, when he allowed six runs in 3.2 innings, Holmes hasn’t allowed a run in three of his four starts in August, throwing 18 combined innings in those three starts.
He’s been one of the biggest reasons why many have gone back on their criticism of Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos, who was railroaded after not being able to add a real impact arm at the deadline outside of Tyler Mahle.
Holmes has a 3.64 ERA this season in 24 starts, which is tied for the most starts in the Braves rotation. His 3.64 ERA is good for third on the pitching staff with a minimum of 20 starts. Holmes threw 94 pitches against the White Sox on Thursday, leaning heavily on his slider, which he threw an eye-popping 51 times, following a recent trend of Atlanta starters using their offspeed for a lion’s share of their pitches.
Austin Riley had both of Atlanta’s RBIs on the day with two run-scoring hits, carrying the Braves' offense to the 2-0 win.
