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.
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 brings up some questions about the depth of the pitching staff and the need for a true long man out of the bullpen. 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.
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.
