CHICAGO — So that’s what it’s supposed to look like.
After braving two days of late spring Chicago cold, the Mets looked like a different team Thursday night with a 10-1 rout of the Cubs. They recorded 15 wins, the second-highest total of the season (and the highest in nearly an entire calendar month). They received particularly strong shots from Carlos Carrasco. And to put it all together, they lost two straight in their last game at Wrigley Field.
“Everything is coming,” Carrasco said.
Although Carrasco points to his own success on the field, he may be talking about the team as a whole. It was that kind of performance, that kind of night.
In it, three things stand out slightly above the rest:
Sweet cookie
Those concerned about Carrasco’s form were relieved Thursday, as Carrasco not only gave the Mets their best start of the season, but also had their best outing since last July. It had been that long since Carrasco had allowed one run or less entering the seventh inning. Afterward, Carrasco admitted that he had never felt so good before this year.
Of particular note was Carrasco’s split changeup, which produced five of his nine hits on the night. Carrasco is struggling with a bone in his right hand that is causing him discomfort. But if he can effectively play his split-changeup on a low-90s fastball, while also mixing in two different pitches, there’s reason to believe the 36-year-old can still develop.
“When I have a change like that, I don’t want to stop throwing,” Carrasco said. “I can get a lot of ground balls.”
Behind Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, the Mets lack a consistent third option in their rotation. If Carrasco can pitch like that again, the team’s pitching situation will look very different.
“We all know what he means to us,” manager Buck Showalter said.
Ordinary polar force
With the game very much in hand in the seventh inning, Pete Alonso attacked Michael Rucker’s cut fastball in the outer edge of the strike zone, hit it hard, then watched as the wind helped him make it 372 feet over the right field fence. In doing so, Alonso joined Dansby Swanson as the only right-handers to go deep into that section of Wrigley Field this season.
Two months into the season, the numbers and facts about Alonso have become something to behold. For example, he is one of nine players to hit at least 165 homers in his first five seasons, joining such luminaries as Ralph Keener, Albert Pujols, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams.
Alonso leads the National League in homers and RBI. He and Jeff McNeil completed a successful double steal in the fifth inning Thursday, increasing Alonso’s career hitting percentage to 91.2 percent. Oh, and he’s only made one mistake at the start of the entire season.
“We purposely don’t talk about it much,” Showalter said. “Everybody makes predictions about him and how things can be, but he just plays with a lot of effort.”
String together
Outside of Alonso, New York’s offense isn’t built to consistently hit homers like other contenders. Just like last season, the Mets remain league average in the power department. So seeing the offense string multi-hit rallies in the third and eighth innings was encouraging for Showalter.
“It’s just a reminder of what we can do and what we need to do,” Showalter said.
There were plenty of hits, especially from McNeil, Francisco Alvarez, Brandon Nimmo and Starling Marte — the latter two seeming to be coming off of recent slumps.
“That’s when we’re at our best — we’re getting good abs, we’re getting on base, we’re putting pressure on the defense,” McNeil said. “It leads to some runs.”