Pirates' Colin Holderman on 'weird' struggles: 'I haven’t had this happen to me in my career'

Not only are things going badly for Pirates relief pitcher Colin Holderman, he’s also not completely sure what’s going on, or how to fix it.

As recently as June 29, Holderman was 3-1 with a 1.21 ERA. After being tagged with a blown save and a loss while giving up a 4-1 lead in the seventh inning on Sunday against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Holderman is now 3-4 with a 3.07 ERA and five blown saves against his record

In his last four outings, Holderman has yielded eight runs, including four homers.

This isn’t the first bad patch of 2024 for the 28-year old right hander. Holderman struggled to start July when the Pirates hosted the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets. In his first three appearances last month against those teams, the Illinois native was charged with a blown save and gave up three earned runs over those three outings.

Yet, just as things were starting to wobble, Holderman steered back into the middle of the road, going five straight games without allowing a run.

Unfortunately, this plummet he is enduring right now doesn’t seem to be about the same issues.

“This is different. My stuff was kind of in a weird spot then. Now my stuff has been pretty good. It’s just been better swings,” Holderman said after Sunday’s 6-5 loss to the Diamondbacks. “It’s been really weird. I haven’t had this happen to me in my career yet. If I want to be around here a long time, there is going to be a lot worse that happens.”

Eh, maybe. But an 0-1 record in four games, four homers allowed, and an OPS-against of 1.875 over 3 ⅓ innings is pretty rough.

Manager Derek Shelton said there has been consistency between Holderman’s dip in early July and right now.

“Yeah. Middle of the plate. Over, on the plate,” Shelton said Sunday. “Not finishing. That’s the story of the two games we lost in this series (against Arizona). We did not execute pitches with two strikes. And we have to. This is one of the best offenses in baseball. If you leave the ball in the middle of the plate with two strikes, they are going to do damage. And we saw that.”

Ready for it? ????

The @Dbacks are back in front after a 3-run homer from Joc Pederson. pic.twitter.com/mOHIfZng7S

— MLB (@MLB) August 4, 2024

Indeed, part of what really stings about this backslide from Holderman is that three of his four poor trips to the mound of late came against the Diamondbacks. Two of them — Friday and Sunday at PNC Park — resulted in Pirates losses. Keep in mind, the Pirates are chasing Arizona in the National League Wild Card standings

After dropping four of six in recent weeks to the Diamondbacks, the Pirates find themselves tied for fifth place in the NL wild-card standings with St. Louis, four games back of Arizona and San Diego, with the New York Mets still between the those two clubs on the outside of the playoff bracket.

Related

• After struggling at plate, Michael A. Taylor hoping to finish the season strong for Pirates
• Tim Benz: Paul Skenes had 'one of those days' ... as did many others in a costly loss to Arizona
• Tim Benz: If Brandon Aiyuk really wants to become a Steeler, now is the time to play that card

Up next for the Pirates, they have a three-game series on the North Shore against San Diego. The Padres are sitting in a tie for the second wild-card slot after winning eight of their last 10 games. Their 526 runs scored are the fifth most in the NL. They also have 31 road wins, tied for the most in the National League with the West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers and the Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers.

After this series the Pirates head west to face those Dodgers. Then they have a three-game rematch with the Padres in San Diego, followed by three home games against the Seattle Mariners, who currently lead the American League West at 59-54.

So, after dropping three of their last four, the next 12 games for the Pirates expect to be quite difficult. Shelton seemed less than committed to the idea of using Holderman in continued high-leverage situations.

“I don’t know. We’re going to have to figure that out. I’m a little (ticked) about how this game went to begin with. So, we’ll try to figure that out during the off-day,” Shelton said, alluding to some shaky umpiring decisions on Sunday that went against Holderman and fellow reliever Jalen Beeks.

That day off was Monday. So we’ll find out what Shelton’s approach is now that his bullpen has had a full 24 hours off to realign. For his part, Holderman is trying to keep a positive attitude.

“I’ve been executing pitches, and the outcome hasn’t been what I’ve liked. But we’re going to get out of this,” Holderman insisted. “I had a good two months to start the season. It’s a rough patch here, and now we are going to have another good two months to finish the season.”

Tuesday against San Diego would be a wonderful time to start getting those last two months back on track.