Carlos Carrasco Is Channeling His Vintage Self for 2022 New York Mets
NEW YORK - Between the 2017 and 2018 seasons, Carlos Carrasco had a combined 10.6 fWAR, led the American League with wins once, and placed fourth in Cy Young voting.
These days, he's channeling that vintage Carlos.
Carrasco took the mound for the Mets on Tuesday night and tossed 6 2/3 innings, scattered seven hits, allowed two runs and punched out nine. The lone blemish coming off a two-run blast that chased him from the game.
After a 51 minute rain delay, Carrasco came out of the gates strong, and carried that through until he ran out of gas with two outs in the seventh.
“In baseball, it’s just about making adjustments," Carrasco said following the game on Tuesday. "I was trying to do it in my last inning but couldn’t because I was sitting for a long time, and kind of cooled down a bit, but I’m glad they called the bullpen in (to finish it). They did a really good job."
Over his last six starts coming into Tuesday, Carrasco had a 1.50 ERA in 36 innings pitched. After his outing against the Reds, his season ERA stands at 3.76 in 124.1 innings, his most since 2018.
“Carlos has been a good major league pitcher for a long time," Mets manager Buck Showalter said. "He hasn’t been this healthy in awhile. It was one of the things we hoped could happen this year, we knew it could be a shot in the arm.
"He’s just been in attack mode. Sometimes, pitchers give hitters too much credit, I think he’s at peace with the results as long as he’s in attack mode."
The 35-year-old is the latest member of the rotation to go deep into a game for New York. In their last eight games, the Mets are averaging 20 outs from their starting pitchers.
Showalter acknowledged the important of this, not just for this series, but beyond as well.
"There’s nothing worse for a team constantly thinking about how much is going to be enough. You make leads matter, you’re able to form some roles in the bullpen. That only happens if your starting pitching is there. It would be hard to get through this stretch and the stretch ahead of us if we don’t continue to pitch pretty well. Not only wins and losses, but physically.
"We were able to shorten our innings out there today, and get completely back on our feet for Friday."
Carrasco has been in the majors since 2009, and has been part of some special starting rotations, but this one feels special, pitching alongside Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and others.
The guys in the rotation consistently share information between them so they all continue to grow.
“It helps a lot," Carrasco said. "Everyday we go out there, we’re just trying to pick something that can make an adjustment, and we make an adjustment. That’s what we are doing everyday.
"Videos and talking about the scouting report, and actually we go out there during the game to see what’s going on, and bring it to the next day, whoever is pitching the next day.”
If Carrasco reaches the 170 inning threshold this year, an option in his contract will vest for the 2023 season.
With the way he's been pitching, that could be a positive for both sides.
