Greg Holland, a cotton ball taped to his arm and still sweating, apologized for being tardy. “Sorry, I had a blood test. I wasn’t dodging you,” the Rockies’ all-star closer said. Then he stood at his locker and explained how another ninth inning slipped away.
After crumpling Saturday night, the Rockies’ right-hander was pulled from his first game this season, with two outs and a three-run deficit, after the Brewers bounced him with a two-run homer and an RBI single. In less than one inning, Milwaukee turned a tie score into a real concern for Holland.
In his past five appearances, three have turned sour for Holland — two blown saves, and the loss Saturday when he entered a tie game. Now five months into his first season since Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery, the right-hander swears his arm feels fine. His struggles, he said, are more elemental.
“Just too many dumb mistakes here lately,” Holland said.
That hasn’t eased the anxiety. Since the all-star break in July, Holland’s ERA has more than doubled, rising from 1.57 to 3.22. He still is the National League leader in saves, with 35, but he has only two this month in seven appearances.
Fatigue is a concern. Colorado manager Bud Black and his pitching coaches regularly check on the 31-year-old Holland, asking about his recovery between games and his overall endurance. They are not hounding him, exactly. But he is among the most important pieces in the Rockies’ attempt to reach the postseason, and they want him fresh.
Physically, Black said, Holland feels fine. And if Holland’s pitches lately lack sharpness, it won’t keep Black from using him.
“Closers are not invincible,” Black said. “Two-time all-star. This guy has great career numbers. If he says he’s fine and good to go, I trust him, and I’ll put him back out there.”
Holland was among the best closers in baseball through 3 1/2 months of the season, posting a 1.62 ERA in 35 games. After missing the 2016 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery, he quickly set aside any worry that the Rockies made a mistake signing him last winter.
But since mid-July, Holland’s numbers have capsized. His ERA in 12 games (11 1/3 innings) inflated to 7.94 and batters are hitting .283 against him since then, more than double (.161) his first-half batting average against.
“My percentage of executing quality pitches hasn’t been what I expect out of myself,” Holland said.
His ability to self-evaluate is brutally objective. Against the Brewers, Holland recognized that hitting Keon Broxton with a pitch in an 0-2 count and one out was perhaps more hurtful than a flat full-count slider to Jesus Aguilar that turned into a home run.
“You get a flyball in the infield, you still realize you made a bad pitch,” he said. “But recently I’ve been getting beat with mistakes in the middle of the plate. A lot of that is due to not getting ahead in counts.”
Holland has tinkered with his mechanics, he said, making slight adjustments on the run. He dismissed that as a cause of his troubles.
“Once you get in a major-league baseball game, you can’t be worrying about mechanics at that point,” he said. “You have to battle and compete. You work on that stuff at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.”
Holland, it seems, is leaning toward the wrong side of a high wire more than tumbling into free-fall. A blown save at Cleveland on Aug. 8 turned on just two pitches. He was one strike from victory before Austin Jackson hit a 2-2 single to tie the game. His next pitch was belted by Yan Gomes for a winning three-run homer.
The Rockies will continue to depend on Holland, though.
“He’s been not quite as crisp overall. And he realizes it,” Black said. “The good closers I’ve been around will have a couple bad games and they always seem to right themselves.”
A closer look
Rockies closer Greg Holland has struggled since the all-star break. His statistics before and after the break:
| ERA | Games | Saves | IP | WHIP | *Avg. | |
| First half | 1.62 | 35 | 28 | 33.3 | 1.02 | .161 |
| Second half | 7.94 | 12 | 7 | 11.3 | 1.77 | .283 |
| * Batting average against | ||||||
Looking ahead …
Rockies RHP Jon Gray (5-2, 4.74 ERA) at Royals LHP Danny Duffy (7-8, 3.82), 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, AT&T SportsNet, 850 KOA
With the National League wild-card race tightening up by the day, the Rockies need Gray to pitch like an ace over the last six weeks of the season. He’s beginning to resemble an ace, but he’s not there yet. He allowed two runs on five hits and two walks, while striking out six over six innings, in a victory over Atlanta last Wednesday. Colorado’s offense provided Gray with a huge cushion, scoring 14 runs in the first five innings. Since giving up eight runs to the New York Mets right after the all-star break, Gray has pitched relatively well, posting a 3.72 ERA with a 35:8 strikeout-to-walk ratio over six starts. August has been rough for Duffy, who has a 6.35 ERA in three starts. The left-hander gave up six hits and four runs over five innings last Wednesday against Oakland. — Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post
Wednesday: Rockies RHP Antonio Senzatela (10-4, 4.56 ERA) at Royals RHP Ian Kennedy (4-9, 5.06), 6:15 p.m., AT&T SportsNet
Thursday: Rockies RHP German Marquez (10-5, 4.24) at Royals RHP Jake Junis (5-2, 4.99), 12:15 p.m., no TV
Friday: Rockies RHP Chad Bettis (0-0, 1.93) at Braves RHP Julio Teheran (7-11, 5.02), 5:35 p.m., AT&T SportsNet
