Photo by Ed Delany of MMO
Carlos Carrasco took the mound for his first start of major league spring training as the New York Mets hosted the Houston Astros on Wednesday night at Clover Park.
Following a rough intrasquad game start last week, the 35-year-old logged four innings of work against the Astros as he looks to get stretched out before his regular season debut on April 10.
Carrasco’s first pitch of the game was dumped into shallow right field by Jose Siri for a single. Siri advanced to second base on a passed ball. He then tagged up and moved to third base after Carrasco got Jose Altuve to fly out to center field. Carrasco issued a five-pitch walk to Michael Brantley before closing out the inning by getting Alex Bregman to ground into a double play.
Carrasco started off the second inning by getting Yordan Alvarez to look at a called third strike. He followed that up by inducing a groundout to third base one pitch later. While he allowed Kyle Tucker to reach on an infield single misplayed by Francisco Lindor, he quickly got out of the inning by getting Jeremy Pena to fly out to center field on one pitch.
In the third, Carrasco used a couple of sinkers to get Martin Maldonado to ground out. He then allowed another base hit to Siri, who then advanced to second base after Altuve grounded to third base. Carrasco allowed his first runs of a game on a Brantley home run to right field. He finished the inning a batter later as he got Bregman to groundout to third base.
Carrasco was greeted with a home run off the bat of Alvarez on the first pitch he threw in the fourth inning. The homer was a 388-foot shot to left field which exited the park in the same direction as the wind. Carrasco then allowed Yuli Gurriel to reach base on a single to shallow right field. He settled down to retire his next three batters faced as he got Tucker to fly out to center field on a fastball, Pena to strikeout swinging on a slider and Maldonado to strikeout looking on a sinker.
Overall Carrasco threw 46 pitchers and recorded three strikeouts in his four innings of work. He allowed six hits, a walk and three runs (two home runs).
Carrasco was in the mid-90s with his fastball throughout the game but struggled with control. Home runs were a problem for Carrasco in 2021, so limiting the long ball is something to work on in his final tune-up of the spring.
