Looking to snap a three-game skid, the Braves sent Grant Holmes to the mound against Jared Jones — a matchup that turned into an unexpected duel between two arms who haven’t exactly had All-Star caliber 2026 campaigns.
Jones came in having made just eight starts on the season after returning from injury, and across those eight he’d never eclipsed the five-inning mark while carrying a not-so-great 5.28 ERA. That was nowhere to be found on Wednesday. He was quite literally perfect over six innings, striking out eight while facing the minimum on just 77 pitches.
In truth, the Braves are lucky he’s still on a strict pitch limit, because it forced the Pirates to pull him. Had they let him keep going, we might be talking about the wrong kind of history this morning instead of a Braves win.
Holmes and the rest of the staff, though, matched Jones every step of the way. Holmes needed 90 pitches for five scoreless innings, allowing three hits and a walk, and the bullpen covered the next four frames without surrendering a run — a welcome bounce-back for a group coming off a rough week.
Offensively, everything changed the moment Jones exited. The Braves picked up their first hit in the seventh, and in the eighth, Joey Bart delivered the dagger: a game-winning two-run homer that went 422 feet over the left-center field wall against his former team. Atlanta tacked on another run in the ninth for good measure before Raisel Iglesias slammed the door for his 18th save.
It was exactly the kind of night Atlanta needed from its struggling pitching staff — and it begs the question: is Grant Holmes the Braves’ second-best starter right now?
Sure, he’s not the type to go deep into games. He allows a lot of traffic on the basepaths and struggles the second and third time through the order, which is why he hasn’t completed six innings since early June. But if the Braves needed one guy not named Chris Sale to keep them in a must-win game over four or five innings, I’m not sure they could turn to anyone else.
His ERA is now down to a respectable 3.61 for the season. He hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs in a start since May 1st, and he’s riding a 0.96 ERA over his last four outings.
It’s more a testament to the dismal state of the Braves’ rotation than anything, but credit belongs where it’s due. For all the flak Grant Holmes has taken from the fan base, he’s given the club a chance to win every time he’s stepped on the mound for two straight months.
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Photo: Dustin Bradford/Icon Sportswire