Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
The Mets accumulated two more wins on their season Tuesday which must mean they received solid outings from their starting pitchers.
David Peterson recalled from Triple-A as the 27th man, opened the doubleheader and Carlos Carrasco owned the nightcap.
Peterson returned to the Mets rotations after one start in Syracuse. He was sent down due to Taijuan Walker‘s departure from the injured list. In his time filling in on the starting rotation, Peterson was excellent, allowing just one run over 14 innings pitched. Peterson appeared on pace for another excellent outing until Matt Olson barrelled a ball over the right field fence.
Peterson allowed a walk and struck out Marcell Ozuna in his first inning. The Mets pitcher would work with a lead in hand from thereon with New York scoring a pair in the bottom of the inning.
The two-run lead wouldn’t last long. Atlanta’s Adam Duvall walked, then he reached third on a double by Dansby Swanson, and was driven home on a sacrifice fly by Travis Demeritte.
Peterson would throw clean third and fourth innings, allowing the Mets to build a 5-1 lead. In the fifth, the lefty started found himself in trouble again. Demeritte led off with a single and Ozzie Albies reached on a fielding error by Peterson to put two on with one out and Olson up.
In his first two at-bats versus Peterson, Olson grounded out and walked. On this third go-around he’d hit the ball a country mile over the right center field fence.
Peterson ended the inning without any more damage. His final line was 5.o IP, four hits, four runs (three earned), three walks, and six strikeouts. The Mets bullpen combined for four scoreless innings to keep the one-run lead. Drew Smith threw two innings, allowing no hits, walking one, and striking out two.
Carrasco started the second game. In his previous outing against St. Louis, he was torched for eight runs in under four innings, suffering his first loss of the year.
In one word, Carrasco was brilliant on Tuesday. The 13-year veteran mowed down the Braves for eight innings. He was a magician with runners on. Atlanta was 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
The first runner reached against Carrasco in four of his eight innings. Ronald Acuna Jr. led the game off with a double, Albies and Adam Duvall each singled in the second, Acuna Jr. walked in the third, and Olson doubled to open the sixth inning.
“I think the most important thing is to attack with the best pitch I’ve got,” Carrasco said. “It was the fastball and the slider [tonight]. Everything came out really good.”
In total, Atlanta managed eight baserunners versus Carrasco. Six hits and two walks. Carrasco battled with home plate umpire Jeremy Riggs and his inconsistent strike zone. Max Scherzer was ejected in the seventh inning after chirping the umpire from the dugout.
Carrasco’s final line was eight innings, six hits, no runs, two walks, and five strikeouts. It was the longest outing by a Mets starting pitcher this season.
With the doubleheader and a 1:10 p.m. start on Wednesday, Carrasco’s start helped the bullpen tremendously. Adam Ottavino, Smith, and Edwin Diaz were all unavailable after pitching in the first game. Seth Lugo was the remaining high-leverage arm in the pen with Trevor May hitting the injured list Tuesday morning.
“It’s one of those unspoken things Carlos knew,” Buck Showalter said. “That’s kind of one of the reasons I wanted to pitch him in the second game instead of the first game, because at least you have an idea of what you’re dealing with in the second game.”
“That was my goal, just go in there and throw as many innings as I could to save the bullpen,” Carrasco said. “I’m glad everything went the way that I wanted to.”
Now it’s Tylor Megill‘s turn. Megill will start for the Mets as they go for their eighth-straight series win on Wednesday.
