Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
Struggles in the first inning have been a theme for Mets starter Carlos Carrasco in 2021 and that continued on Thursday night against the Marlins at Citi Field.
The Marlins took no time at all to jump on Carrasco’s early struggles as Miguel Rojas hit the very first pitch of the game for a home run. Jazz Chisholm followed with a double and then scored on an RBI single by Jesus Aguilar. The Mets were down 2-0 in the first inning with nobody out. Luckily, Carrasco would settle down to retire the next three batters to end the damage.
The Mets got a run back in the bottom of the first inning, again on the first to the first batter, as Jonathan Villar took Sandy Alcantara deep. According to Sarah Langs of ESPN, it was the first time that both team’s leadoff hitters have hit a first-pitch leadoff home run in the same game since pitch counts have been tracked (1988).
Carrasco set the Marlins down in order in the second inning including one strikeout. More of the same in the third inning, Carrasco set down the Marlins in order on three groundouts. The veteran right-hander retired the Marlins 1-2-3 in the fourth inning as well.
Back-to-back hits by Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor got the Mets even at 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth inning. Then Lindor got Alcantara to balk with Francisco on third and the Mets took a 3-2 lead.
The Marlins leadoff hitter in the fifth inning reached on a Villar error, but Carrasco then got your everyday 9-3 double play (with an assist from a great deke by Javier Baez) and a strikeout to end the inning.
Rojas reached on an infield single to start the top of the sixth that Carrasco threw away and Rojas went to second base. Carrasco responded with a strikeout of Chisholm. Carrasco walked Aguilar to put runners on first and second. Mets manager Luis Rojas decided to bring in lefty Aaron Loup to face lefty Jesus Sanchez.
Unfortunately, Loup walked the first two batters he faced to push in a run that tied the game at 3-3. Loup recovered to get Sandy Leon to strikeout and Jorge Alfaro to groundout, stranding three runners.
Carrasco’s final line:
5 1/3 innings, 4 hits, 3 earned runs, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts
Carrasco now has a 15.43 ERA in the first inning and a 3.74 ERA in all other innings through seven starts for the Mets.
As for the success that Carrasco had on Thursday, we can point directly to his changeup. He threw the pitch 39% of the time and had an impressive 45% whiff rate against the Marlins. Carrasco might have decided to stay away from his fastball on the evening after all three hits in the first inning came off his fastball.
Carrasco will take a 6.59 season ERA into his next start that’s likely against the Marlins again.
