{"id":990349,"date":"2026-08-09T04:29:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T04:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/990349\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T04:29:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T04:29:22","slug":"clay-holmes-allows-4-runs-in-chicago-cubs-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/990349\/","title":{"rendered":"Clay Holmes allows 4 runs in Chicago Cubs debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

KANSAS CITY \u2014 Clay Holmes<\/a> isn\u2019t satisfied by merely making it back to a big-league mound.<\/p>\n

The right-hander\u2019s fractured fibula had forced a lengthy rehab process since sustaining the injury May 15 with the New York Mets, and his Chicago Cubs debut<\/a> Saturday night didn\u2019t feature the typical crispness. Holmes allowed four runs, six hits and two walks in four innings and struck out one batter in the Cubs\u2019 6-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals. The loss snapped a five-game winning streak<\/a> for the Cubs (68-50).<\/p>\n

Holmes induced nine ground-ball outs, including two double plays.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a lot of work to get back to this point, and it definitely felt good to just be back in the big-league game \u2014 obviously, that\u2019s not the full goal,\u201d Holmes said.\u00a0\u201cYou want to be back and helping this team win games, and I just wasn\u2019t quite sharp enough tonight, but it was a good step.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s rewarding to be able to come back, and I\u2019m really close to being myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sinkerballer experienced some command issues with the pitch, especially early. He surrendered a solo home run to Jac Caglianone in the first inning off a sinker over the plate, then allowed a two-run single to Josh Rojas the next inning on a sinker that wasn\u2019t low enough in the zone. Holmes grinded through a three-hit third inning but couldn\u2019t get through it unscathed after Caglianone, who finished a four-hit night with pairs of home runs and doubles, got enough on a low sweeper to put the Royals up 4-0.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust wanting to be back and really just be in the zone early, and I think some excitement early,\u201d Holmes said of the command issues. \u201cI\u2019m not going to say overthrowing, but you\u2019re excited, and it\u2019s just a matter of controlling that. I was able to find the zone. Obviously, left that one up to Caglianone. He put a couple good swings on some balls tonight, but really it\u2019s just, you know, settling in and know I don\u2019t have to do too much. I\u2019m not really going to overpower people, and it\u2019s just relying on the movement and making pitches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manager Craig Counsell expected Holmes\u2019 journey into game action could mirror how Matthew Boyd returned from his nearly two-month layoff following knee surgery. Holmes wasn\u2019t expected to go deep into the game as he works back to form, and he threw 70 pitches Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, it kind of looked like a first start,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cI think the first couple innings he just left the sinkers up a little bit. As the game went on, we saw more sinkers down. He didn\u2019t have all of his offspeed pitches cooking on the night like he needs to. Kind of battled through that. He\u2019ll get better as we go here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The offense didn\u2019t muster much against Royals starter Seth Lugo and their bullpen. Carson Kelly\u2019s two-run double in the fourth cut into the Cubs\u2019 four-run deficit, and Ian Happ followed in the sixth with a solo home run to bring the Cubs within one. Happ, whose home run snapped an 0-for-22 stretch, added a double in the eighth.<\/p>\n

Right-hander Colin Rea gave the bullpen a needed night off by taking the last four innings in relief, giving up two runs on four hits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s a loss, and that\u2019s not good, but to give everybody a day off, it was really important,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cSo job well done by Colin.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY \u2014 Clay Holmes isn\u2019t satisfied by merely making it back to a big-league mound. The right-hander\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":990350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,1271,20404,397153,32979,362578,5386,1818,1284,1822],"class_list":["post-990349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-clay-holmes","tag-cubs-debut","tag-cubs-rotation","tag-cubs-trade-deadline","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-mlb-baseball"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=990349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/990350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=990349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=990349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=990349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}