Photo by Ed Delany of MMO
Carlos Carrasco endured a tough day on the mound on Thursday.
Attempting to ramp up with spring training now in full swing, Carrasco pitched in an intrasquad game on Thursday afternoon but struggled right out of the gate.
As has become a consistent issue as of late, the 35-year-old continued struggled once again in the first inning, giving up a three-run homer to Jose Peroza.
Carrasco was also taken yard by Tomas Nido later on in the game, which isn’t a good sign with the regular season rapidly approaching.
Failing to locate his stuff in the first inning is hardly a new problem for the righty, who gave up 18 first-inning runs last season.
Carrasco finished the intrasquad game with five earned runs off six hits, no walks and three strikeouts while giving up two home runs in 3 1/3 innings pitched.
Now, a lot of Carrasco’s troubles last year can be traced back to the fact that he was hampered by injuries, missing the start of 2021 with a torn hamstring before finally undergoing surgery in October to remove bone fragments from his elbow.
Photo by Ed Delany of MMO
The Mets will hope that Thursday’s rough outing on the mound was just a case of Carrasco slowly ramping up and working on different pitches, but if those first inning nightmares are to continue, then that could spell bad news in 2022 for the veteran who is supposed to be a solid piece of what is a stacked rotation.
If the Mets are to have a successful season and make it back to the Playoffs, they will need consistent good outings from every member of their starting rotation, including Carrasco.
In good news, however, the Mets were treated to a flash of what Chris Bassitt is capable of, with the righty tossing a gem in the same intrasquad game.
The offseason addition from the A’s pitched five innings with just one hit, no walks and five strikeouts, with his curveball in particular looking like it was already in midseason form.
Afterwards he said this about heading to arbitration, “I care about baseball, I don’t give a shit about my contract. That’s why I pay my agent.”
The fact that Bassitt was able to put together a strong outing on the mound should serve as encouragement to the Mets, with manager Buck Showalter certainly experiencing a mixed day when it comes to his rotation.
Another pitcher of note was right-hander reliever Drew Smith tossed a scoreless inning that included a strikeout of Ronny Mauricio. Smith had been on the shelf with a foot issue.
