When the Mets signed Clay Holmes to a three-year, $38 million deal in the offseason, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that the right-hander would be a part of New York’s starting rotation.

Sure, that was president of baseball operations David Stearns‘ plan, but the tall task was a daunting one as the 32-year-old had spent the majority of his seven-year career as a relief pitcher, save for four starts he made his rookie year with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2018.

Now, it’s hard to imagine Holmes not in the Mets’ rotation as he owns a 3.07 ERA (1.16 WHIP) through 12 starts and 67.1 innings so far this season — a testament to New York’s coaching staff and organization as a whole.

Holmes’ latest start on Sunday against the Colorado Rockies was a milestone for the right-hander as he went seven innings for the first time in his career. He allowed three earned runs after giving up two home runs aided by the wind, but the offense, led by the Mets’ big three, did just enough to give him his sixth win of the season.

“I thought he was really, really good,” manager Carlos Mendoza said after the game. “I thought the life on all of his pitches, especially the four-seam, the two-seam — other than the two pitches that they hit for homers — the slider, the changeup. And I thought he elevated the four-seam effectively. The whole time I’m watching him and just with the way the ball was coming out, it had life and he was really good.”

After just 85 pitches thrown over those seven innings, Holmes probably had enough left in the tank to go even deeper, but the Mets weren’t about to push their starter even more than they already had and have this season.

Nevertheless, the outing was another great one for Holmes who has allowed three earned runs or fewer in 10 of 12 starts this season.

“I feel like I’m in a good rhythm right now, in a good routine, recovering well,” Holmes said. “… For me to go out there and give some length, it feels good.”

Before Sunday’s start, four out of his last five starts Holmes had gone six innings. Compare that to pitching 5.1 innings or less in five of his first six starts and the writing was on the wall for a game like this out of the former reliever.

And despite only recording three strikeouts on the day, Holmes, known more as a ground ball specialist, was a groundout machine against Colorado, totaling 10 outs on the ground.

Weak contact on the ground early in counts and letting the defense behind him make plays was part of the reason he was able to go deeper than he has all season.

“It was really good to see that and I felt like in that seventh inning he was still touching 94 (mph), kept getting ground balls and that’s his calling card,” Mendoza said. “… I thought he was in pretty good shape throughout the outing, those middle innings, I thought overall he was in complete control.”

Fully entrenched as a starter now, what will be interesting for Holmes is how the Mets deploy him for the rest of the season as he’s just 2.2 innings away from matching his career-high in innings pitched (70 innings in 2021).

What will help is the calvary that is on its way, starting with Paul Blackburn on Monday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea not far behind.

Regardless, Holmes deserves a lot of credit for even putting New York in this position, stepping up in a big way for a team that had a lot of question marks on the pitching side entering the season.

It took 59 games, but for the first time this season since joining forces, Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Pete Alonso all went yard as the Metsbeat the Colorado Rockies, 5-3, on Sunday afternoon to complete the series sweep and cap off a 7-2 homestand.

New York is now 15 games above .500 at 37-22 which is the most games they’ve been above .500 this season. What’s most impressive about that is it did it, for the most part, without its big three all clicking at the same time.

But over the weekend against the Rockies who are on pace to be historically bad this season, the trio turned it on.

“That’s probably the first time if I’m not mistaken,” manager Carlos Mendoza said after the game about Lindor, Soto and Alonso all homering in the same game. “There’s three really good hitters at the top and it’s fun to see them going deep in the same game. That’s what we envisioned. When you got those three at the top, it’s pretty special. We saw it today and hopefully they’ll get going here.”

Alonso started the home run train with his three-run blast in the fourth inning that gave the Mets a 3-1 lead. The first baseman had a hit in all three games of the series and after a career-long power outage ended at the start of the homestand, he’s now hit three home runs in his last seven games to give him 12 on the season.

After Colorado tied the game against Clay Holmes in the next half-inning thanks to a wind-aided two-run homer, Lindor wasted no time to retake the lead with a long ball of his own. Like Alonso’s, the shortstop’s homer was a no-doubter and capped a memorable series and homestand for the 31-year-old.

Suddenly raging hot, Lindor went 6-for-11 against the Rockies, including two walks and three home runs. He now leads the team with 13 dingers and has his OPS back to .845 on the season.

“You try to go out there and play your best and when Francisco is going, obviously, at the top it makes everyone else’s job easier, whether he’s getting on base or driving the ball the way he’s doing it,” Mendoza said. “And you see it, every time he goes deep it’s usually with runners on base (or) to take the lead. He’s pretty clutch. Great player here and you gotta embrace it and enjoy it.”

Then there was Soto who did not have a hit until the eighth inning, although he was hit by a pitch and walked in his two prior at-bats. Still holding on to a one-run lead from Lindor’s home run back in the fifth after Colorado’s bullpen pitched well, Soto cracked a solo shot on a 3-2 pitch that had just enough legs to get out and give the Mets an insurance run for Edwin Diaz in the ninth.

The home run was Soto’s second in as many days after the right-fielder went back-to-back with Brandon Nimmo on Saturday which ended a homer-less streak of his own.

Not having played his best in his first season in Queens so far and owning a career-low .224 batting average before the weekend series, the 26-year-old finally perked up at the end of the homestand and is now 4-for-his-last-9 with two home runs and a double.

“Coming through for the team is always great so I’m really happy with that,” Soto said. “I’ve felt good since Day 1, the results just haven’t been there. So for me, finally I’m getting some balls landing, finding some holes and some gaps. We just gotta keep working on it.”

New York will now leave home where it is an MLB-best 24-7 this year to embark on a seven-game West Coast road trip, starting with four games against the Los Angeles Dodgers whom the Mets took two out of three at the beginning of their homestand.

The Mets have not had the same success on the road and are 13-15 away from Citi Field. They’ll look to turn those road misfortunes around starting on Monday night. Hopefully their big three are all still clicking when they arrive to Los Angeles.

“Obviously their talent jumps off the page and for us, we just need to stay in our area, stay locked in and really play our game,” Alonso said about the Dodgers. “That’s really it.”

“We gotta keep going, we got a long ways to go,” Mendoza added. “The mentality is one series at a time, one day at a time.”

Starting pitcher Corbin Burnes left the Arizona Diamondbacks‘ game versus the Washington Nationals on Sunday after suffering an apparent arm injury in the fifth inning.

Burnes was taken out of the game with elbow inflammation. The team has “initial cautious optimism” that Burnes avoided serious injury, via USA TODAY’s Bob Nightengale.

With two outs in the fifth inning, Burnes threw a high cutter that CJ Abrams pulled into right field for a single. The right-hander immediately called for help from the dugout and yelled in frustration. He stepped off the mound and pulled his cap up, indicating that something was wrong. 

A team athletic trainer then came out to check on Burnes and appeared to say that he hurt either his elbow or oblique. 

Burnes then left the game, having thrown 70 pitches over 4 2/3 innings, the last of which was clocked at 91.5 mph — apparently one or two mph lower than he had been previously throwing.

After the game, Burnes told reporters it was a sensation he never felt before and it “got to the point where the tightness was too much. … hopefully we caught it early, hopefully it’s not bad.”   

In his first season with Arizona, Burnes has a 2.72 ERA and 3-2 record with 57 strikeouts in 59 2/3 innings. The 30-year-old signed a six-year, $210 million free-agent contract — the largest deal in team history — with the Diamondbacks that allowed for an opt-out after the first two seasons.

The 2021 National League Cy Young Award winner, Burnes had averaged 196 innings during the past three years. In eight MLB seasons, he’s compiled a 3.16 ERA and 63-38 record while averaging 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings with the Milwaukee Brewers, Baltimore Orioles and Diamondbacks. Including Sunday’s game, Burnes has thrown 968 innings during his MLB career.

Starting pitcher Corbin Burnes left the Arizona Diamondbacks‘ game versus the Washington Nationals on Sunday after suffering an apparent arm injury in the fifth inning.

Burnes was taken out of the game with elbow inflammation. The team has “initial cautious optimism” that Burnes avoided serious injury, via USA TODAY’s Bob Nightengale.

With two outs in the fifth inning, Burnes threw a high cutter that CJ Abrams pulled into right field for a single. The right-hander immediately called for help from the dugout and yelled in frustration. He stepped off the mound and pulled his cap up, indicating that something was wrong. 

A team athletic trainer then came out to check on Burnes and appeared to say that he hurt either his elbow or oblique. 

Burnes then left the game, having thrown 70 pitches over 4 2/3 innings, the last of which was clocked at 91.5 mph — apparently one or two mph lower than he had been previously throwing.

After the game, Burnes told reporters it was a sensation he never felt before and it “got to the point where the tightness was too much. … hopefully we caught it early, hopefully it’s not bad.”   

In his first season with Arizona, Burnes has a 2.72 ERA and 3-2 record with 57 strikeouts in 59 2/3 innings. The 30-year-old signed a six-year, $210 million free-agent contract — the largest deal in team history — with the Diamondbacks that allowed for an opt-out after the first two seasons.

The 2021 National League Cy Young Award winner, Burnes had averaged 196 innings during the past three years. In eight MLB seasons, he’s compiled a 3.16 ERA and 63-38 record while averaging 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings with the Milwaukee Brewers, Baltimore Orioles and Diamondbacks. Including Sunday’s game, Burnes has thrown 968 innings during his MLB career.

Elly De La Cruz didn’t need to play Sunday afternoon. Nobody would have blamed him if he opted to take the day off.

But the Cincinnati Reds shortstop, despite just learning about the death of his sister, took the field anyways at Wrigley Field on Sunday. And in the bottom of the sixth inning, he found a way to honor his sister on the field.

De La Cruz hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning, which marked his 12th of the season and the 50th of his career. As he made his way home, after hitting the dab with his third base coach, De La Cruz pointed up to the sky and flashed a heart.

De La Cruz also wrote a message to his sister on his hat before the game.

The home run put the Reds on the board for the first time Sunday, and cut the Cubs’ lead to three. The Cubs, though, added two more runs in the seventh and powered ahead to the 7-3 win.

De La Cruz’s older sister, Genelis De La Cruz Sanchez, died on Saturday in the Dominican Republic after a lengthy battle with multiple health issues, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. It’s unclear when De La Cruz learned of his sister’s death, but some of his teammates reportedly didn’t know about it just a few hours before Sunday’s game got started.

“We just told him we’ll support whatever he needs to do,” Reds manager Terry Francona said before the game, via the Enquirer. “He wants to play today, and then we’ll go from there.”

De La Cruz had two hits in the loss for the Reds, which dropped them to 29-31 on the season. The team will be back in action Monday in Cincinnati when they open a three-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers.

It’s unclear if De La Cruz will take some time off in the near future to be with his family. But, at least in the immediate aftermath of his loss, the Reds star still found a way to honor his sister in his own unique way.

Elly De La Cruz didn’t need to play Sunday afternoon. Nobody would have blamed him if he opted to take the day off.

But the Cincinnati Reds shortstop, despite just learning about the death of his sister, took the field anyways at Wrigley Field on Sunday. And in the bottom of the sixth inning, he found a way to honor his sister on the field.

De La Cruz hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning, which marked his 12th of the season and the 50th of his career. As he made his way home, after hitting the dab with his third base coach, De La Cruz pointed up to the sky and flashed a heart.

De La Cruz also wrote a message to his sister on his hat before the game.

The home run put the Reds on the board for the first time Sunday, and cut the Cubs’ lead to three. The Cubs, though, added two more runs in the seventh and powered ahead to the 7-3 win.

De La Cruz’s older sister, Genelis De La Cruz Sanchez, died on Saturday in the Dominican Republic after a lengthy battle with multiple health issues, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. It’s unclear when De La Cruz learned of his sister’s death, but some of his teammates reportedly didn’t know about it just a few hours before Sunday’s game got started.

“We just told him we’ll support whatever he needs to do,” Reds manager Terry Francona said before the game, via the Enquirer. “He wants to play today, and then we’ll go from there.”

De La Cruz had two hits in the loss for the Reds, which dropped them to 29-31 on the season. The team will be back in action Monday in Cincinnati when they open a three-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers.

It’s unclear if De La Cruz will take some time off in the near future to be with his family. But, at least in the immediate aftermath of his loss, the Reds star still found a way to honor his sister in his own unique way.