Six days ago, I wrote an article entitled “Something’s Gotta Give With Colin Holderman.” That came after three brutal games in a row that saw him pitch 2.1 total innings, surrendering 6 earned runs, 3 home runs, and be handed back to back loss decisions.
Since that article on August 2nd, Holderman has made a pair of more appearances, and he has continued to get worse and worse. He was the pitcher of record when he threw 1.0 innings and gave up another run, earning the loss on August 4th.
And last night, when he stepped in for the tenth inning in a back and forth match between the San Diego Padres, where he gave up 3 runs (2 earned) and handed away yet another game.
In his last four appearances, Holderman has recorded an 0-4 record. His last seven games have seen him pitch 6.1 innings and allow 8 earned runs, for an 11.37 ERA and a 2.210 WHIP.
Make no mistake, Holderman is god awful right now. But the continued use of him in high leverage, game-deciding situations has to fall on the shoulders of manager Derek Shelton.
Back on the 2nd, I wrote this on the situation:
“There’s trusting your guys, and then there’s trusting your eyes. Shelton needs to trust his eyes now. Holderman is struggling too much when it matters most.
“Shelton’s confidence in Holderman despite the bad last few games is admirable, but doing so any longer would just be stupid.
“Shift him to the front of the bullpen for right now, and let him bounce back there.“
Instead, what Shelton has done is double down on this awful decision-making. Shelton barely budged on the idea to remove Holderman from high leverage situations, saying that’s something that the team would “evaluate” but that in the meantime, he was staying in that same role.
It’s resulted in back to back losses in appearances Holderman made.
Yes, Holderman has to be better, much better. With the way he is pitching right now, it’s hard to believe he made it two whole months into the season holding an 0.68 ERA. However, Holderman doesn’t decide when he comes out to pitch. Shelton does.
Holderman is only accepting the marching orders as they are given out. Sure, he is royally screwing them up, but that’s up to the manager to step in and stop that.
Shelton is not only continuing to use Holderman, he is using him in extremely high pressure scenarios, situations that Holderman has now shown time and time again he is not capable of handling right now. He simply cannot be trusted.
Equally as inept was the management of other Pirate relievers, which forced the team to turn to Holderman in the tenth in a game they so desperately needed. Having someone like, say, Kyle Nicolas available last night would have been extremely useful for the Pirates. Instead, Shelton had Nicolas throw 47 pitches the day prior, knocking him out for this game.
But even taking that away, Holderman does not have to be your back end reliever right now. Shelton used Hunter Stratton, Jalen Beeks, and Aroldis Chapman in this game as well, in addition to Bednar.
Stratton came in during the top of the fifth inning. Put Holderman in there, or to start the sixth, and shift everyone down one inning. It’s not ideal to have arms like Stratton and Beeks pitching closer to the end of the game, but Holderman’s intense struggles push the Pirates into some tougher calls.
Bullpen roles are so fluid; aside from David Bednar as closer (and even that was iffy for a while), Pirate relievers have shifted all around as they trend up or down.
Holderman isn’t just trending down, he is imploding in real time. Even a haircut or a return to “Soul Survivor” blaring in the ballpark when he comes out to pitch isn’t saving him right now.
Bottom line, this eventually has to all fall on Shelton. He has continued to stick with the bad decision to keep Holderman in high pressure situations, and wore out other arms that could have played a crucial role in last night’s game.
Even if Holderman’s fourth consecutive loss was enough to push Shelton to move him out of that role, it may already be too late.
The Pirates fell back below .500, and have now lost their second series in a row. More importantly, they are now 4.0 games out of a wild card spot in the National League, and have handed a series to two teams they are directly chasing. They could hand the Padres a clean sweep victory tomorrow afternoon. Holderman, sadly, has a direct hand in that reality.
Unfortunately, the only person who seems to not be seeing that is the only person who can stop it.
Fifth Avenue Sports 
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