Holmes' rare blemish blows Yanks' 3-run lead

NEW YORK -- The man who owns baseball’s most dominant pitch this season jogged out of the right-field bullpen, and when Clay Holmes enters a game, it’s usually as close to automatic as you can get. Pack it up, cue Sinatra, listen to the end from the Deegan. Sure, the Reds wanted to win, but they couldn’t expect to.

Cincinnati’s win expectancy was 3% as Holmes set foot upon the rubber, which meant there was a 97% chance of the Yankees shaking hands soon. Those mathematical models did not anticipate Holmes’ best weapon evaporating, with the closer experiencing a stunning meltdown in New York’s 4-3 loss at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday.

“The sinker just didn’t feel right, and I started letting myself lose some direction there,” Holmes said. “Once it happened, it was really hard to start righting the ship. There were a ton of uncompetitive pitches. I just didn’t really give the team a chance to win right there.”

The Yankees had been a perfect 49-0 when leading after eight innings this season, largely due to the All-Star Holmes, who had blown just two save opportunities all year and entered Tuesday with a 0.46 ERA. However, one of those blown saves came on Saturday at Boston, when he allowed a walk and a run-scoring single while seeking a four-out save.

Just a blip on an otherwise stellar season, manager Aaron Boone thought, quibbling with the suggestion that Holmes had faltered at Fenway -- a ground-ball single to Alex Verdugo followed by a perfect ninth inning hardly qualified as a natural disaster. But when Holmes tossed his first pitches on Tuesday, his arm slot felt all wrong.

Three pitches sailed out of the strike zone to Tommy Pham, and Holmes scrambled, guiding a sinker over the inside corner for a called strike. The next pitch missed well outside for a walk, and Joey Votto followed by punching a single into center field. Holmes then plunked Tyler Stephenson in the back with a sinker, and the bases were loaded with none out.

“Always with Clay, I’m thinking, ‘He’s one pitch away,’” Boone said. “He’s going to put you on the ground. So it was just about dialing into command, which he obviously struggled to find tonight.”

Just one strike at a time, Holmes thought. Falling behind Tyler Naquin with a 2-1 count, Holmes tossed his bread-and-butter sinker again. Naquin went with the pitch, slapping it toward shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who ranged toward his right, dove and watched the ball trickle into left field for a run-scoring hit.

Though Wandy Peralta was warming by then, Holmes knew the lead was still two runs and a ground ball would be an escape route. Pitching coach Matt Blake visited the mound, asking if the humidity was preventing Holmes from gripping the baseball. Holmes said that he was fine.

Facing Kyle Farmer, Holmes tried a sinker. Ball one. Slider. Ball two. The third pitch was a sinker way inside, clipping Farmer to force in another run. Boone had seen enough, and Holmes handed the ball over without argument.

“I’ve definitely had innings where I’ve had to make adjustments. I just couldn’t do it tonight,” Holmes said. “I really couldn’t get the sinker feel back. Maybe I should have gone to a different pitch a little sooner. I don’t know. I think you definitely learn from these. I look forward to getting back out there and giving the team a chance to win next time.”

Gerrit Cole had been dominant over seven scoreless innings, striking out 11 in a four-hit effort, touching 100.5 mph on his 114th and final pitch. Now his chance at a decision hung in Peralta’s hands, and the left-hander darned near pulled off the Houdini act -- successive fielder’s choices to erase runners, including Nick Senzel’s one-out grounder to third base.

Josh Donaldson fielded that ball and threw home to catcher Jose Trevino for a force play, but even Donaldson wasn’t quite sure it was the right play. Was there time to try for a game-ending, 5-4-3 twin killing? Possibly, but in real time, Boone said he thought preventing the run from scoring was the right play.

“The corners are in there to stop the runners from scoring,” Donaldson said. “The only ball I was going to second base with at that moment was a one-hop ball at me that had enough steam, knowing with how well [Senzel] runs. It was going to have to be a perfect throw to second, perfect throw to first base in order to get him.”

Peralta’s magic ran out when Jonathan India drilled a two-run single to right-center field, giving the Reds a lead that even they couldn’t have seen coming, and eventually giving the Yanks their second three-game losing streak of the year.

“He’s picked us up so many times. It’s just a bummer we couldn’t pick him up tonight,” Cole said of Holmes. “Wandy gave it a great effort, made his pitches and we couldn’t scratch anything out in the ninth. Sometimes these nights are going to happen. We’re going to look for the next opportunity to pick him up."