MILWAUKEE — Buck Showalter was confident that Carlos Carrasco would have a strong showing in his first outing of the 2023 season but that premonition didn’t quite come to fruition.
The Mets arrived in Milwaukee riding high after a 3-1 series win in Miami to start the 2023 campaign. But an implosion in the fifth inning ultimately doomed them against the Brewers and they were blown out 10-0 on Monday afternoon at American Family Field.
The Mets were a little bit of a mess. Carrasco’s first pitch of the game was called a ball for a pitch clock violation and the Mets committed three more of them, with Carrasco committing a second and Omar Narvaez and Mark Canha getting dinged for taking too long as well.
There was some confusion as to what caused the violations, with the Mets unsure of whether it was the fault of the clock operator or the stadium scoreboard but they took full responsibility and Showalter said he’s going to look at how the Mets can better handle the quick pace.
“I think everybody is going through some adjustment periods,” Showalter said. “It’s umpires, it’s clock operators, it’s us, it’s other teams we’re playing but you had better figure it out because it’s not going away.”
Carrasco (0-1) ran into trouble in the fourth inning with the Brewers rallying for two runs with two outs and the struggles continued in the fifth, with Milwaukee scoring seven runs and batting around. Brice Turang, a 23-year-old rookie infielder, hit a grand slam off Tommy Hunter for his first career home run, which cued up a chorus of cowbells from a sellout crowd of 42,017.
The Mets’ bats went quiet as Freddy Peralta (1-0) blanked them through six two-hit innings. He walked three but the Mets only had two baserunners get past first with him in the game. Daniel Vogelbach had the first hit off Peralta and tried to stretch a single into a double in the second inning, but he was nailed at second base by an excellent throw from right fielder Joey Wiemer.
In just over four innings, Carrasco allowed five earned runs on four hits, walked four and struck out four. Hunter allowed five earned on five hits over two innings, walked two and struck out one. This game brings up some questions about the depth of the pitching staff and the need for a true long man out of the bullpen. The Mets may not have enough pitchers to make it to Friday. They got one scoreless inning from right-hander Dennis Santana and one from infielder Luis Guillorme, who somehow performed better as a pitcher than the actual pitchers, working around a one-out single with relative ease.
Adam Ottavino warmed up, but the Mets opted to have Guillorme pick up the inning to save an arm for tomorrow.
“Trying to massage our way through that game,” Showalter said. “You never go into a game assuming that your pitcher is going to go deep into the game, especially with a club that’s good like this on the road.”
A shutout also renews the argument about whether or not the Mets need another bat.
Carrasco’s control started to slip in the third inning when he walked Turang to lead off. Turang stole second and Jesse Winker singled him home.
His velocity slipped in the third but even more so in the fourth. After starting the game with a fastball around 93 MPH it fell below 90. He got the first two outs in the inning before giving up a single to Garrett Mitchell and a home run to Brian Anderson.
Carrasco came back out to face the top of the order in the fifth down 3-0, but was pulled after walking Christian Yelich and Winker.
Hunter came in to try and stem the bleeding much to no avail. He gave up an RBI single and a walk before getting an out — an RBI groundout to put the Mets down 5-0 — another walk and another RBI single before Turang cranked a belt-high changeup into the left-center stands.
The long innings can start to feel even longer for pitchers with the clock consistently ticking down. Pitchers are no longer afforded unlimited time to take breaks, which has led to a few complaining of fatigue. Carrasco wasn’t quite prepared for how hard he would have to work to keep up in the fourth and fifth innings with runners on base.
“Oh, yes. It is crazy just getting back to there,” Carraco said. “Especially the first pitch of the game, I kept that in my mind. I only have 15 seconds to get in there, but I’m pretty sure this is one of those things. It is what it is.”
Can’t get enough of the Mets? Sign up for the News’ brand new newsletter — featuring the week’s best Mets stories, handpicked by the Daily News sports editors, written by our award-winning columnists and beat writers.
()