ATLANTA — It only seemed appropriate for this particular Braves team that it would come down to the last day, to the second game of an unprecedented postseason-determining doubleheader Monday, after everyone else in the majors completed the regular season the day before.
And that it would require an emergency start from Grant Holmes, a castoff who spent 10 years in the minor leagues with three organizations before his MLB debut this summer with Atlanta. He was told 30 minutes before the first pitch that he’d be the one throwing it, not ace Chris Sale, who was scratched due to back spasms.
“I didn’t really have time to have any feelings about it, I just went out there and tried to do what I could,” said Holmes, a 28-year-old rookie who grew up pulling for the Braves in Conway, South Carolina, the son of a Baptist pastor.
Now here he was smiling, drenched in champagne, beer and tears, reeking of cigars and sweat, standing in the plastic-covered Braves home clubhouse, where Holmes and his teammates reveled in what they accomplished with a 3-0 win against the Mets that secured the seventh consecutive postseason berth for the Braves.
“I want to give Grant Holmes about a million hugs today,” Braves catcher Sean Murphy said. “He gets 10 stars. That was not an easy ask, what we asked of him right there. And he was phenomenal. Amazing.”
Understand, Holmes had pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings the day before against the Royals. He wasn’t pitching on short rest, he was pitching on no rest. And yet he retired 12 consecutive Mets batters to start Monday’s game, striking out seven.
“Amazing,” said Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies, who had a huge day himself, going 2-for-3 with a two-run homer and three-run double in the first game, and adding a single and run scored in the clinching win. But he was more fired up talking about his teammates, especially Holmes.
“I didn’t even know till I was walking out (to the field for Game 2),” Albies said. “I was like, ‘Hey, who’s pitching?’ And they told me. I mean, his mind works where you just put him in and he pitches. That’s it.”
It’s hard to tell exactly how the soft-spoken Holmes thinks, but everyone in the clubhouse has raved about his kindness and pleasant demeanor since the June day he arrived from Triple-A Gwinnett. His fans include Sale, who praised his determination to get to the majors, his legit MLB pitch arsenal, and his “A-plus big-league hair.”
That hair was wet and hanging past his shoulders as usual Monday, and a Braves postseason cap was atop his head and the heads of his teammates — well, except Michael Harris II, who celebrated wearing a black Atlanta Falcons football helmet and ski goggles to keep the stinging champagne out of his eyes.
It had seemed unlikely that this Braves team would have a chance to celebrate like this. It was plagued by injuries since Opening Day – when Murphy strained an oblique that sidelined him for two months – and saw several of its biggest hitters slump for months, including last year’s MLB homer and RBI leader, Matt Olson.
But there were never fissures in the clubhouse, never fingers pointing or eyes rolling or off-the-record blame being cast about, like there are with some other teams faced with similar adversity.
“I feel like a lot of clubhouses could kind of shut down with the stuff that we were going through, the kind of ball we were playing,” said Olson, who eventually got going and finished with the second-most RBIs in the NL (53) after the All-Star break and tied for eighth-most homers in the league (16) in that period.
“But we’ve got a bunch of guys who’ve been here who have won, and know what it takes. You can’t just drag your blanket around and feel sorry for yourself. You’ve got to find a way to move on and get a win.”
Olson, cigar smoke coming from his mouth as he spoke, added, “It wasn’t the cleanest year for us, but we got in. Took us 162, but we got in there. And ready to roll.”
Do they like their chances in the postseason, even if Sale, who won the NL crown after leading the league in wins (18), ERA (2.38) and strikeouts (235), isn’t ready to pitch in the best-of-three Wild Card Series that starts Tuesday against San Diego?
“Oh, hell yeah,” Murphy said. “Of course. We get in the playoffs, anything can happen. I mean, the way we battled today, the way we fought, even in the first game that didn’t go our way. We took our 40 minutes between games and bounced back and got the second one. So, we’re just going to go out there and play.”
When Holmes left the field after giving up a single and walk to start the fifth inning with the Braves ahead 1-0, he got a thunderous ovation from a sold-out crowd of 41,561. He was overwhelmed.
“There aren’t words for it,” he said. “Just a surreal moment. Super grateful and blessed. Thankful.”
Was this everything he had imagined it might be? “Absolutely,” he said, then smiled. “And more.”
Snitker was elated and understandably worn out after a long, emotional day that saw the Mets celebrate on the Braves’ field after winning the first game as the Braves wasted a splendid start by rookie Spencer Schwellenbach and blew a 3-0 lead in an 8-7 loss.
That game had three dramatic shifts in momentum in the span of 1 1/2 innings in the eighth and top of the ninth innings. The Mets got six runs in the eighth, including Brandon Nimmo’s three-run homer off closer Raisel Iglesias. Albies hit a three-run double for a 7-6 lead in the eighth inning, but Francisco Lindor answered with a two-run homer in the Mets’ ninth off Pierce Johnson.
But a few hours later, the Braves poured onto the field after the last out, celebrating their own clinching win.
“Everybody that’s in this tournament, nobody had an easy path in here,” Snitker said. “Everybody has adversity. And the teams that their guys don’t get caught up in all that, end up doing well. So I’m very proud of all these guys. Especially a guy like Grant Holmes, been 10 years in the minor leagues and now he gets to spray champagne.”
Snitker, who seemed to fight back emotions after mentioning Holmes, added, “That’s awesome. And what an unbelievable job. You know, he knew 10 minutes after we were done (with the opening game), or 15, that he was going to start that game. So, tremendous job.”
Snitker said they had no idea who they’ll start Tuesday since Max Fried pitched Friday and Reynaldo López started Saturday (and again for one inning in relief in Monday’s win). Charlie Morton pitched Sunday, so he’s out of the equation, as are Schwellenbach and Holmes, obviously.
Unless Sale feels a lot better — Snitker said he didn’t think Sale would pitch in the Wild Card Series, but president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos didn’t rule it out — the Braves might bring up AJ Smith-Shawver, Ian Anderson or Hurston Waldrep, all of whom have continued throwing at Gwinnett to stay ready. That, or a bullpen game, but the bullpen is likely too fatigued for that after Monday.
“We’ve got four hours in the air to kind to kind of figure things out,” Snitker said of the flight to San Diego.
Because they had to make up last week’s weather-postponements against the Mets on Monday for postseason determinations, the Braves and Mets, who’ll face Milwaukee in a Wild Card Series, have no day off before plunging into the postseason.
No rest for the weary, though the Braves were anything but weary at this particular moment, the music throbbing from huge speakers in the clubhouse, players spraying champagne, chomping on stogies and just acting like the happiest young men in the world. And some not-so-young.
“I think this one took us all to the edge more than any of the others,” Braves chairman Terry McGuirk, a top executive with the team since the 1980s. “As far back as I can remember, I can never remember having our nerves taken to the edge like this. If you had any nerves left after today, you were a Superman. Incredible.”
The Braves saw their run of six consecutive NL East titles ended this season by the Philadelphia Phillies. But they got back to the postseason by scratching and clawing and picking up pieces along the way to fill in for all the injured players. Additions such as Jorge Soler and Gio Urshela, who had a double and RBI single, respectively, in the second inning of the win Monday.
Piecing it together and taking a difficult road to the destination brings its own special satisfaction.
“Everybody gets a lot of credit for putting this together,” McGuirk said. “But Snit was the rock in there every night. It was some rough days, with what he had to work with. So, pretty incredible that he persevered. Always was optimistic. You saw it every night, he never wavered. Give him a lot of credit.”
McGuirk added, “For this organization, this is probably one of the most formative wins we’ve ever had because we sort of got counted out. We didn’t expect after the early losses of all the players that we would finish as strong as we did. And to win five in a row down this last stretch, what a week. So that’s where this team showed the best. If Snit hadn’t gotten everybody going and had this great last week, we’re not here right now.”
Snitker doesn’t like to take credit, always defers to the players and says it’s about them and their work ethic and love for each other that makes such moments possible. But he did allow that, yes, this one felt special.
“Yeah, it feels really good, really satisfying,” Snitker said. “And like I said, I’m just so proud of the whole group. So, hopefully, we get to take a little nap and get after it again tomorrow.”
(Top photo: Edward M. Pio Roda / Getty Images)
