Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

It was an interesting night on Friday for Carlos Carrasco who started strong but finished on shaky terms in the Mets’ wild 8-6 win over the Phillies at Citi Field.

After dominating the Phillies lineup for most of the night, Carrasco’s night took an ugly turn and only another big night from Pete Alonso and yet more ninth inning heroics from Edwin Diaz saved the day.

It all started so well for Carrasco who flew through an easy one-two-three inning in the top of the first, striking out both Rhys Hoskins and Alec Bohm before forcing a fly out from Bryce Harper.

Armed with an early lead, the 35-year-old did give up a leadoff double to Nick Castellanos to start the second, but he struck out Kyle Schwarber swinging and, after Jean Segura was hit by a pitch, both Odubel Herrera and Garrett Stubbs grounded out to ensure Carrasco got out of the inning unscathed.

It proved to be another easy one-two-three inning in the third for Carrasco who went to his fastball to strike out Bryson Stott, and he used a combination of pitches to deal the same fate to Hoskins before Bohm lined out to Jeff McNeil at second to end the inning.

Carrasco was leaning on his four-seam fastball for most of his night, using the pitch 45% of the time with a 21% whiff rate, while the slider also proved successful with a 29% whiff rate despite being thrown just 10 times.

The veteran also elicited nine swing and misses as he breezed through the fourth and fifth innings, allowing only two hits through his first five innings of work as he appeared in cruise control.

However, as good as Carrasco was on the mound, something rapidly changed in the sixth inning as the rightly imploded, giving the Phillies a route back into the game.

The inning began with Carrasco giving up four straight singles, with Harper and Castellanos allowing Hoskins and Bohm to score to cut the lead to 7-2. Schwarber did strike out swinging on a changeup, but a Jean Segura ground out allowed Harper to score before Herrera walked to spell the end of Carrasco’s night.

It was an ugly end to what was otherwise a solid start by Carrasco, who would have been relieved to have seen his teammates eventually get the job done despite almost blowing what was a big lead. It would have also been frustrating for the starter that the hits he gave up in the sixth all came by soft contact and all were hard-luck hits.

Carrasco finished his night with five earned runs on six hits with one walk and seven strikeouts in 5.2 innings of work, improving to 5-1 on the season with a 3.98 ERA, and the veteran was just happy that the Mets were able to get the job done.

“You know what, it was something I couldn’t control,” Carrasco said. “Those three runs, pretty much two ground balls right there, the ground ball to second base through the hole but in the end we won the game and that’s what we’re looking for.

While the ending wasn’t great and could have easily led to a very different outcome for the Mets, Carrasco’s overall outing on the mound was another positive and the veteran righty continues to give his team both length and meaningful contributions, which is crucial for a rotation that is stretched incredibly thin right now.

“They got me in the last inning but you guys saw the game, it was just soft contact right there and they were pretty good, but the way to pitch it is to be a little bit smarter and that’s what we did,” Carrasco said. “I’ve been studying those guys a lot and this year we’ve played them a lot, so the way they hit, the way they make contact, it was great and we made the right pitches.”