Carlos Carrasco falls flat, Mets lose to Red Sox again with trade deadline inching closer
New York Mets' Carlos Carrasco delivers a pitch to a Boston Red Sox batter in the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, July 23, 2023, in Boston. Credit: AP/Steven Senne
BOSTON — By the end of another disappointing weekend, it was more of the same for the Mets: They keep losing, the trade deadline keeps approaching and Billy Eppler’s phone keeps ringing.
They dropped the Sunday night finale, 6-1, and thus the series to the Red Sox, worsening their playoff-picture predicament at a bad time.
Heading into their final six games before the Aug. 1 deadline to deal players, the Mets are 46-53 and 7 1⁄2 games back of the last National League wild-card spot, with five teams they would need to jump. They have gone 16-26 beginning on June 2 and are guaranteed to have a losing record when the deadline passes.
Their hopes for a last-ditch post-All-Star-break turnaround have not manifested in anything resembling a run.
Speaking before the game, general manager Eppler stopped short of outright declaring that his club will sell players from its roster, offering only that he is “fielding calls and making my own calls” as the trade landscape takes shape.
But as manager Buck Showalter likes to say, it is important to stay in reality. The Mets’ reality is dire. Their deadline status increasingly speaks for itself.
“Still just want to watch us play a few to several more games,” Eppler told Newsday.
“See what our outcomes are, see how those outcomes affect our positioning and also how the other teams around us play and what the standings look like.”
Mark Canha said: “Nobody is too down. Everybody is even-keeled. Just waiting for us to show a sign of life.”
In the latest loss, the blame largely went to Carlos Carrasco, who gave up five runs in 2 1⁄3 innings, his shortest outing since last August. Boston went 10-for-15 with two walks against him.
Carrasco allowed six consecutive hits to open the third inning (with Drew Smith yielding a seventh). The Mets had six hits all game.
An awkward play at third base, after which Carrasco appeared shaken up, might have contributed to his ineffectiveness. But Showalter said, “It was a struggle from the get-go.”
“I don’t know,” Carrasco said. “I just went out there and threw strikes. And they got me. There’s nothing that I can do about it.”
Lacking a suitable starting pitcher, the Red Sox rolled with a parade of relievers, which proved to be a highly effective strategy.
Five of their seven pitchers were lefthanded, the Mets’ kryptonite.
Among the reasons the game was not more lopsided: The Red Sox (53-47) made four outs on the bases, one at each base.
Canha threw out three of those runners, tying the franchise record for most outfield assists in a game.
The most recent person to do it: Endy Chavez on June 4, 2006.
In his previous 3,178 career innings in leftfield, Canha had zero direct assists, according to Sports Info Solutions.
Canha’s first came in the first inning. Jarren Duran went from first to third on Masataka Yoshida’s groundout to third, and when Pete Alonso’s cross-diamond throw to Carrasco, covering third, was wild, Duran tried to score, but Canha threw him out.
In the third, Rafael Devers also went from first to third on Adam Duvall’s RBI double down the leftfield line. Canha threw behind Devers, who had strayed too far from the bag, for the out.
(Devers made up for that by hitting his 24th homer, a 413-foot shot that went over the bullpens in the seventh.)
Triston Casas singled to left in the fifth, but Canha’s throw caught him — by several steps — trying to turn it into a double.
“It just kind of happened. I felt like it was seamless,” Canha said. “Just trying to play sound, fundamental outfield. That’s kind of what I do.
“I think Fenway, the shorter leftfield, it gives you more opportunities to make plays on direct throws. It all just happened tonight.”
Showalter said: “Tonight was a great example of why people like having Mark Canha on their team . . . That was a positive on a night when there weren’t many.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
