Anaheim, CA – The Mats weren’t fortunate enough to leave town before Mike Trout became healthy.
Wash it off and go ahead. That’s the best advice Buck Showalter can follow after Saturday night’s trout tormented her, handed by Shuhei Ohtani, in the Mets’ 11-6 loss to the Angels.
Trout blew two of Homer, and Otani added another one on the night the Angels hit five. The dynamic duo was a combined 6-for-8 on board with six RBIs.
“I think I made a little bit more on the court today,” said Carlos Carrasco, after his worst start in 5½ weeks.
It was the third non-competitive loss in the last four contests for the Mets, who edged out 20-2 in losing the last two games of their series in San Diego this week. If the Mets are to save the .500 road trip, they will have to win Sunday’s series finale at Angel Stadium.
Indeed, the damage has been done. The Mets kicked off this West Coast journey with a 10-game progression in the NL East. That lead was reduced to 5 lengths, buoyed by the Braves’ winning streak in 10 matches. Velez is eight behind after winning nine games in a row.
“We just take care of the way we play here,” said Carrasco. “We’re not trying to think of those other games.”
Trout, who had missed the Angels’ three previous games with a groin sore, arrived at Carrasco in the third inning. On the sixth, he went deep against Jake Reed, giving Trout the 23rd multiplayer game of his career. Jared Walsh hit for the Angels tournament, hitting a triple on the eighth to reach the finish. On Monday in San Diego, Eduardo Escobar tripled on his last bat to complete the Mets’ first course in 10 years.
Carrasco allowed five earned runs in eight hits with seven hits and one walk over 4²/innings. The right-handed left after making 77 throws, two of which went to homers (trout and otani). In the process, Carrasco’s ERA jumped from 3.52 to 3.93.
Former Yankee and Bronx native Andrew Velasquez went deep against Reed for sixth in Homer’s third for the Angels of the night. Trout’s blast two stages later in the inning increased the Angels’ lead to 8-0. On the seventh, Walsh summoned against Chasen Shreve. The five reptiles that the Mets allowed were the peak of the season. Walsh returned with a score three times in the eighth round of the tournament (both runs were charged to Shreve).
The Mets only scored seventh on Mark Kanha’s RBI single, facing former Mets loyalist Aaron Loeb. The run was shipped to Angels starter Michael Lorenzen, who allowed one to run with six strokes and one walk over 6¹/innings.
Pete Alonso came in the eighth inning. The blast was 17th this season for Alonso, which alone saw him finish first in the National League. The Mets hit four runs with two wins in the ninth, with Khalil Lee’s first major-league team work, a three-stroke blast, providing most of the boost.
“I think we had six or seven balls that we hit right on the button,” Showalter said. “They played a good defense tonight. I thought with a few innings here and there we would have a different situation.”
Carrasco started off in a shake, allowing two runs in the first. Brandon Marsh walked ahead of the game for the Angles before Ohtani smashed the RBI double with one stroke, to finish third on a Louis Gillorm foul. This was followed by Anthony Rendon with an RBI double that put the Mets into a 2-0 hole.
Trout announced his return to the Angels lineup by firing a 425-foot shot that cleared the left fence in the third inning to extend the Angels’ 3-0 lead. Homer was the 15th trout of the season and the first Carrasco allowed in six starts, dating back to May 10.
Ohtani caused more mayhem for the Mets in the fifth, as Homer blew out two rounds against Carrasco who gave the Angels a 5-0 lead. Trout doubled in the stroke before Otani cleared the fence at center-right with a bullet that left his racket at 113.5 mph. Homer was Otani’s thirteenth in the season.