Mets’ Carlos Carrasco says ‘everything is coming together’ after best start of season
The Mets got exactly what they needed from their team, especially Carlos Carrasco.
After losing the first two games to the Cubs, the Mets came back with a 10-1 victory to salvage a game from the three-game set, and Carrasco was in the midst of all of it.
In his second start since coming off the IL, Carrasco had the best start of his season. The veteran went 6.2 innings (100 pitches), giving up five hits, one run and two walks while striking out four batters.
Manager Buck Showalter said after the game that Carrasco’s command and aggression was what really helped him mow down a Cubs lineup that was giving Mets pitchers fits in this series. Over the first two games, Mets starters did not get out of the fifth inning with the bullpen needing to get 31 outs.
“Just putting in my mind, ‘I need to save the bullpen,’” Carrasco said when asked how he found his command. “And that’s what I did. Everything worked out together with [Francisco] Alvarez. In between innings we were talking what to do next. He called a great game.”
Carrasco certainly saved the bullpen for the Mets’ upcoming series against the Rockies this weekend, and he did so by finding that aforementioned command. In fact, he said he was happiest about everything in Thursday’s start.
“Finally I found my changeup, curveball, fastball. I can throw everything for a strike today,” he said. “I knew I got too many pitches deep in the game. I tried to go deep in the game, we used the bullpen the last two games. … Everything was working very good today.”
The 36-year-old says the last time he felt that in control of his pitches was last year. Carrasco also admitted that Thursday was the best split-changeup -- his signature pitch -- that he had all season, and said "everything is coming together."
That pitch came into play in the third inning when the Cubs had the bases loaded with Mike Tauchman at the plate. The veteran got the changeup low in the zone and the left-hander grounded out to end the threat.
“When I have that kind of changeup I don’t want to stop throwing it,” Carrasco said. “I can get a lot of ground balls. I got a couple of fly balls today, but I just used that with the bases loaded. That’s most important, to get the ball to look like a strike.”
Carrasco helped the Mets end their short two-game losing streak and hope to continue winning as they try to climb up the NL East standings. If Carrasco can continue to be this effective, Showalter says it’ll be a huge boon for a rotation that has been decimated by injuries early on.
“We all know what he can mean to us and has last year,” Showalter said. “Contributing like we know he can would mean a lot to our pitching staff.”
Last season, Carrasco pitched to a 15-7 record and a 3.97 ERA. With the best outing of this season in the books, the right-hander says he doesn’t think too much about how he hopes to keep that effectiveness moving forward.
“What I did today, I have to take it to the next game,” he said.
