Carlos Carrasco's Mets Debut, Black Jersey Night Spoiled In Loss To Reds
On the same night that the Mets brought back their black jerseys for the first time since 2012, Carlos Carrasco made his long awaited debut on the mound for the Amazins'.
Unfortunately, the Mets' offense couldn't get much going past the first inning, and the bullpen allowed five runs in a 6-2 loss to the Reds.
After falling behind 1-0 early, the Mets were initially able to even things up two batters in during the bottom of the first. A leadoff single by Brandon Nimmo and an RBI double from Jeff McNeil, who extended his career-high hitting streak to 16 games, produced a run against righty Sonny Gray to tie it at 1-1.
However, the Mets had a chance to do more damage against Gray with the bases loaded and nobody out, but couldn't capitalize. The slumping Michael Conforto struck out, and then Jonathan Villar hit one hard on the ground, but right at the second baseman who turned two to get out of the jam.
From this point on, the Amazins' were only able to scratch across one more run, which came in the ninth when they were already down by five, as a result of their bullpen.
Carrasco's evening didn't start out the way he would've hoped, as he allowed a leadoff homer to Jonathan India on the first pitch he threw, but he settled in to have a more than solid outing against the Reds.
While the right-hander was not fully stretched out, he was still able to give the Mets four innings, allowing one run on the homer and three hits, while striking out four batters and walking one on 58 pitches.
Following Carrasco's exit, Miguel Castro entered in the top of the fifth in a tie game. And albeit Castro being one out away from working a scoreless inning, he surrendered a double to India, before giving up an RBI single to Jesse Winker, which put the Reds back on top 2-1.
With the Mets' bats sputtering, the Reds continued to take advantage against their bullpen, tacking on another run versus reliever Drew Smith in the top of the sixth. Joey Votto took Smith deep for a solo shot, homering in his seventh straight game (nine homers in this span) to extend his team's lead to 3-1.
On the other side, Gray got in a groove to retire 11 Mets in a row, after McNeil's single in the bottom of the third, to finish his outing. The right-hander allowed five hits, one run and struck out seven.
Mets left-hander Anthony Banda worked around a walk by striking out three in a scoreless top of the eighth. But, Banda was asked to handle the ninth as well, and that's when it all fell apart for him. The lefty allowed three runs on four hits, including a two-run homer to India, which saw the Reds bust it open at 6-1.
In the bottom of the ninth, the red-hot Brandon Drury knocked in Villar to cut the deficit to 6-2. But that's all the Mets could scratch across versus Reds closer Amir Garrett.
The Mets have now dropped two straight games and are 54-48 on the season. In what was supposed to be a positive day with the acquisition of Javier Baez at the trade deadline, was ultimately overshadowed by bad news regarding Jacob deGrom, and another loss on the field.
After the game, manager Luis Rojas revealed that Nimmo was removed with a "small pinch" in his hamstring after his diving catch in the top of the ninth. Rojas insisted that it is very small and they don't expect it to be serious. He will be checked tomorrow, per Rojas.
