Carlos Carrasco was set to take the mound on Thursday against the Arizona Diamondbacks, as the New York Mets looked to sweep the series at Chase Field. After an outstanding performance from starting pitcher Kodai Senga the night prior, Carrasco had large shoes to fill, and he stepped up to the task in a profound way.
His final line in the winning effort: 8 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 1 BB, 4 K.
In his previous start, Carrasco had tried out a new slider grip that he discovered in an Instagram video portraying Pablo Lopez, a starting pitcher with the Minnesota Twins. He fared well in that outing against the San Francisco Giants, as he allowed two runs over five innings pitched with six strikeouts.
Carrasco used his slider 28 times out of 92 pitches in his previous outing, and batters whiffed on it seven out of 12 times, which generates a whiff percentage of 58%. To put this number into perspective, the best whiff percentage on the slider among qualified pitchers this season is 59.8%, which belongs to Diamondbacks’ relief pitcher Andrew Chafin. That said, Carrasco’s slider was on par with the best in the league for generating swings and misses in his last start.
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On Thursday, Carrasco did not use his slider as much, but still saw outstanding results in its limited usage. Out of his 96 pitches, 16 of them were sliders, and he had a whiff percentage of 50% on six swings. Furthermore, the slider was called for a strike four times, which means that seven out of the 16 sliders he threw were either called strikes or whiffs, which accounts for a CSW% (called strikes plus whiffs percentage) of 44%. He also generated two foul balls, along with only one ball in play on this pitch.
In addition, Carrasco’s curveball was highly effective on Thursday, as he threw it 12 times while generating one whiff on five swings and four called strikes. The two balls in play off the curveball both resulted in outs, so this pitch was useful in limiting any damage that the first-place Diamondbacks offense could have caused.
Overall, this performance is a huge step in the right direction for Carrasco, as it came against a formidable threat in the National League West Division. Carrasco could be slated for a better second half of the season with the addition of the adjusted slider as the latest weapon in his arsenal.
