Photo by Chris Simon

Carlos Carrasco looked outstanding in his first start of 2022 against the Nationals on Sunday afternoon. He pitched 5.2 innings, giving up just one earned run on two hits and one home run. He struck out five on 72 pitches (50 strikes). His ERA after his opening start is 1.59. Though stellar, he ultimately took a no-decision with the Mets falling to the Nationals 4-2 after an eighth inning comeback by Washington.

Carrasco opened the bottom of the first with two quick outs: a strikeout of Cesar Hernandez, followed by a fly out of Juan Soto. He then gave up his only mistake of the day, a two-out solo home run to Nelson Cruz. Josh Bell followed Cruz with a single to right field, but the rest was history as Keibert Ruiz flew to right to get the Mets out of the inning.

Carrasco cruised through the rest of his start, retiring 15 in a row after the first inning home run to Cruz and single to Ruiz.

He struck out one in the second inning, two in the fourth, and one in the sixth. He was replaced on the mound in the sixth by Chasen Shreve after 5.2 innings of near-perfect pitching. The Mets fans in attendance gave Carrasco a standing ovation.

According to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, Carrasco favored his off-speed pitches on Sunday, with 68 percent of his 72 pitches thrown off-speed, notably his changeup and slider. He also tossed in some fastballs, sinkers, and curveballs against the Nationals.

He threw his slider 28 percent of pitches and is split-changeup 24 percent of the time on Sunday.

In his post-game interview, Carrasco said he felt good on Sunday afternoon, reiterating his comment during spring training about being ready for the regular season.

“You know what? It feels good,” he said. “As I said before in spring training, I was ready, and today I was ready for it [the start].”

He said he didn’t locate the pitch to Nelson Cruz well, but after that, he was able to shut it down, speaking on retiring 15 batters in a row.

Carrasco was asked about the percentage of off-speed pitches thrown on Sunday. Per reporters, he threw his fastball at least 50 percent of the time in 2021. However, he threw just 30 percent heaters in his first start on Sunday.

“My best pitch is the breaking ball, and that’s what happened today,” he responded to reporters, saying he only wanted to throw the fastball at certain times and had great control of his off-speed pitches.

Manager Buck Showalter said Carrasco’s “in a different place right now than he’s been in a while.”

“It’s really good to see. You can see it in his face. It was good to see him get off to a good start in the season because we could use him,” said Showalter, who also said Carrasco got better as the game went on.

“You could see him get his sea legs under him. He had a lot of weapons today. That was good to see.”

“Everybody loves Carlos. I think everybody was really pulling for him to get off to a good start.”