Carlos Carrasco struggles as Brewers rout Mets
The Mets' Carlos Carrasco reacts after giving up a two-run home run during the fourth inning of a game against the Brewers on Monday in Milwaukee. Credit: AP/Aaron Gash
MILWAUKEE — With his velocity diminished and his effectiveness going with it, Carlos Carrasco trudged back to the mound for the bottom of the fifth inning Monday afternoon, doing what manager Buck Showalter told him to do in what then was a reasonably close game.
Carrasco already had thrown 85 pitches to the Brewers in his season debut. The previous inning had been his worst. MLB’s pitch-tracking technology started to confuse his fastballs and splitters, one of which got hammered for a home run by Brian Anderson, convincing the Mets to get reliever Tommy Hunter warmed up.
They nonetheless rolled with Carrasco when the next inning came around. Then his ugly outing quickly devolved into an even uglier 10-0 loss for the Mets in Milwaukee’s home opener.
Luis Guillorme, who started at third base before moving to shortstop, pitched a scoreless eighth inning on a dozen pitches. Jeff McNeil played shortstop for the first time in the majors, catching a pop-up on his only defensive chance.
“They got us today,” Mark Canha said.
Carrasco’s final line included five runs in four innings (plus two batters). After he walked his only two hitters upon returning in the fifth, Hunter entered, allowed both inherited runners to score and gave up five of his own, turning it into a bona fide blowout.
Brice Turang, a rookie playing in his fourth game, had the big blow, a grand slam for his first career home run.
The most curious piece of Carrasco’s outing: The significant drop in velocity — on all of his pitches — from last year to this outing and from the first inning to his last.
Last year, Carrasco’s four-seam fastball averaged 93.2 mph. In his final Grapefruit League start on March 17, it was 92.4. On Monday, 91.1 — with a max of 93.2.
It got worse late for Carrasco, who bottomed out at 88.7. That was the fastball, mislocated down and in instead of up and in, that Anderson crushed 421 feet to straightaway center, increasing the Brewers’ lead from 1-0 to 3-0 in the fourth inning.
Showalter’s explanation for the velocity reduction, in part: Those were two-seamers instead of four-seamers and a lot of pitchers slow down late in an outing.
Is he concerned?
“Not really,” Showalter said. “He’s where he needs to be range-wise, where he normally is for the most part.”
Carrasco had a different idea: His long innings, including 27 pitches in the third and 29 pitches in the fourth, were particularly difficult to get through because the newly implemented pitch clock limited his ability to rest between pitches.
“I feel a little bit tired. It was long innings,” he said. “Listen, we are human beings, we’re going to get tired. So not every time we’re going to throw 93-plus, 94-something. We’re going to get tired, trying to figure out how to get out of the inning.”
Carrasco skipped his second-to-last scheduled start of spring training in favor of what Showalter called “maintenance” on his right elbow. After Monday’s game, Carrasco described the elbow as feeling “great.”
“Everything feels nice, everything feels normal,” he said.
The Mets’ bats, meanwhile, managed little against Freddy Peralta. He walked two of his first three batters — Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor on a combined 10 pitches — but got through six shutout innings with seven strikeouts. He gave up two hits.
Bryse Wilson pitched the final three frames to pick up the save in his season debut.
This schedule was unusual for the Mets, who got into Milwaukee by 10 p.m. Sunday and had a quick turnaround to a day game, scheduled as such by the Brewers because it was their first home game of the season. The Mets will face similar circumstances Wednesday, when they return to New York, and Thursday, when they scheduled their own home opener for 1 p.m.
This time, facing Peralta didn’t help.
“Good stuff. Stayed on the edges. That’s kind of the name of the game, isn’t it?” Canha said. “Good stuff and didn’t make too many mistakes, didn’t throw a whole lot of balls in the middle. That’s a tough day.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
