Despite Saturday’s 4-3 loss to the Miami Marlins, Braves manager Brian Snitker was upbeat about starter Grant Holmes and the team’s pitching options.
Here is what Snitker said after the game:
Q: Did Holmes show you tonight that he can be an asset moving forward?
A: “Yes, absolutely. Kind of the one inning got away from him there a little bit but Dylan (Lee) came in and did a good job. Just couldn’t do anything offensively. But yeah, I thought he threw the ball really well again. We’re definitely, going forward, we don’t know if we’re gonna need him to start again or what but we feel confident with him doing that now.”
Q: And it’s so nice to have a guy like that emerge out of nowhere?
A: “Yeah I know. And he’s done such a good job, I kind of feel like he’s stretched out now too. He can go six innings and that’s awesome. And he’s fairly efficient, stuff’s good so yeah I like what I saw.”
Q: Nice to have options this time of year, he’s an option, A.J. Smith-Shawver could be an option, maybe Ian Anderson?
A: “Yeah I mean [if] those two guys can get stretched out, we have some nice options now. And with Grant depending on, you know, where we’re at and we get Reynaldo Lopez back and so these in-house is really good. To have those two other guys, something happens, the more they pitch and more they get stretched out, the better that’s going to be also.
Q: What did you hear about Anderson’s last start at Triple-A?
A: “It was OK, it was good. I mean he went 87 pitches I believe so he’s (knock on wood) making the starts, doing the sides, doing everything to get back. It’s just more probably I think he needs repetitions and he needs innings because he’s been off for so long.”
Q: Will Lopez throw a bullpen session soon?
A: “No, not yet.”
Q: Would it make sense to put Lopez on the injured list?
A: “No, I mean not right now I don’t think. That’s things we’re talking about but I don’t think we’re going to have to do that yet. I mean down the road maybe but we’re still kind of taking this thing day by day with him. So yeah, there’s a lot of balls in the air right now.”
