Clay Holmes fractures his tibia on 111-mph comebacker

Mets trainers examined Holmes for a bit before allowing the 33-year-old right-hander to continue pitching. Holmes finished the inning and even faced two batters in the top of the 5th before being pulled out.

Holmes was removed with his pitch count at 95, which made it seem like he had successfully shrugged off the blow to his leg. That wasn’t the case. After the game, New York Post reporter Mike Puma confirmed that Holmes had suffered a fractured tibia in the 5-2 Mets loss.

Mendoza told reporters that Holmes would be out of the rotation “for a long time” while recovering from the injury.

The news is a huge blow to the Mets, who saw Holmes as one of the few bright spots on the team this season. He entered Friday’s game with a team-best 1.86 ERA among starting pitchers, even outperforming ace Nolan McLean over the first two months.

Holmes allowed four earned runs against the Yankees on Friday. He had not allowed more than two earned runs in any of his previous eight starts.