Lindor, Carrasco Carry Mets to Win Over Giants
Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports
The Mets took on the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday afternoon looking to secure the win in the four-game series from baseball’s best team in 2021 regular season. Behind a big day at the plate for Francisco Lindor and a dominant outing for Carlos Carrasco, the Mets defeated the Giants 6-2 to improve to 10-4 on the season.
The Mets are the first team to 10 wins during the 2022 season and have yet to lose a series.
After a day where the Mets’ offense showed up too little too late, Lindor got the offense going early to set the tone for the day. In the lineup as the designated hitter for the first time this season, he belted his fourth home run of the season in the bottom of the first inning to put the Mets ahead 1-0.
The Giants answered in the top of the second. After Carrasco hit Brandon Crawford with a pitch to lead off the inning, he allowed back-to-back singles to Wilmer Flores and Thairo Estrada to even the score with nobody out. Carrasco was able to settle down and avoided any further trouble by retiring the next three Giants hitters to strand the two runners on base.
The Mets got that run right back in the bottom of the second inning when Eduardo Escobar hit the second pitch of the inning over the right field wall for his first home run as a Met. They added another run after a sequence that made returning Buck Showalter‘s presence felt. With Travis Jankowski on first, Luis Guillorme executed a perfect hit and run to move Jankowski to third. Tomás Nido drove in the Mets’ second run of the inning with a sacrifice fly.
In the third inning, the Mets tacked on two more runs. Lindor started the inning with a single before Jeff McNeil hit a double off the top of the wall that was just barely missed clearing the fence. After Pete Alonso and Escobar failed to get the runs in, Mark Canha drove them in with a two-out single to extend the Mets lead to 5-1.
While the offense was scoring at will to start the day, Carrasco was finding a groove of his own. After allowing the first three Giants to reach base in the second inning, he retired the next 18 batters. The Giants did not get another baserunner until the top of the eighth inning when Mauricio Dubón reached on an error. He was quickly erased when Curt Casali followed with a double play ball.
With two outs in the eighth, Carrasco allowed his first hit since the second inning when Mike Yastrzemski hit a solo home run to cut the lead to 5-2. With Brandon Belt coming to the plate, Carrasco was pulled for Joely Rodríguez and walked off to a standing ovation from the Citi Field crowd. Rodríguez retired Belt on a pop up to third base to end the inning.
After an RBI single by Brandon Nimmo extended the Mets lead to 6-2 in the eighth, the Mets turned to Edwin Díaz in the ninth inning in a non-save situation. Díaz retired the heart of the Giants lineup in order with two strikeouts to close out the game and the series win.
Players of the Game: Lindor and Carrasco
It may have taken a year longer than Mets fans anticipated, but the two players the Mets acquired in their blockbuster trade with Cleveland two winters ago showed how big of an impact they can have when they are at their best.
Lindor started the day by blasting his fourth homer of the year, a total he didn’t reach until May 29 last season. With his three hits today, his triple slash line sits at .308/.419/.615 through the first 14 games of the season. After getting off to an incredibly slow start in 2021, Lindor has gotten off to a similar start to his 2017 start. He hit .309/.380/.638 in April of 2017, and finished fifth in American League MVP voting that year.
The 2021 season was a disaster for Carrasco. Injuries delayed the start of his season until July 30. When he did return, he struggled to get into a groove and pitched to a 6.04 ERA. It has been an entirely different story for Cookie in 2022.
In 7 2/3 innings on Thursday, he allowed just four hits and two runs while striking out seven hitters. The first run and three of those hits came before an out was recorded in the second inning, then Carrasco retired eighteen consecutive hitters. It was the longest streak of consecutive batters retired for Carrasco since he was perfect through 6 1/3 innings on July 1, 2015 with Cleveland.
Through his first three starts of 2022, Carrasco has looked like the pitcher who was consistently one of baseball’s best with Cleveland. He has a minuscule 1.47 ERA through 18 1/3 innings, and has struck out 20 batters while allowing just two walks and nine hits.
On Deck
The Mets will begin a three-game series with the Diamondbacks in Arizona on Friday night at 9:40 p.m. ET. It will be their second consecutive weekend with a series against the Diamondbacks, and it will be the final time the two teams play this season. The Mets will send David Peterson to the mound, and the game will be televised on SNY.
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