Bullpen success a false indicator for Carrasco
Pregame stuff does not carry onto field in difficult outing
CLEVELAND -- It was like they knew what was coming.
The first four White Sox batters Carlos Carrasco faced in Saturday night's 10-3 loss singled. Three more reached base on batted balls in the inning. When it was all said and done, the 28-year-old righty walked off the mound to a 5-0 deficit before the Indians had a chance to bat.
Carrasco entered the game with the fourth-lowest contact rate in baseball. Missing bats is his specialty. On Saturday, he wasn't fooling anyone.
"Everything that I threw today, they hit," Carrasco said. "The fastball inside, I don't know, I guess maybe I threw something wrong. They hit it really easily."
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Carrasco looked like an entirely different pitcher than the guy who had held batters to a 2.95 ERA in the calendar year prior to Saturday's start. He was a far cry from the man who struck out eight and allowed one run on four hits against the same team back in April.
Carrasco thought perhaps he was tipping his pitches. He's already looking forward to reviewing video of his start to search for a potential cue in his delivery.
"That's my guess," Carrasco said. "But I don't know. They just hit everything really easily."
Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway thought Carrasco had some of his best stuff upon completion of his pregame bullpen session.
"He came out of the 'pen with really good stuff tonight," manager Terry Francona said. "Mickey was saying in the bullpen, 'That's the best stuff he's had all year.'"
The four innings matched a season low for Carrasco, not counting the April 14 start in which he was knocked out of the game before retiring a batter after being struck in the head with a line drive. The six runs were a season high.
"We don't feel anything," Carrasco said of potentially tipping his pitches. "Sometimes, the next day, a couple guys, they can tell you, 'You did this, you did that.' You've just got to figure it out. I'll look at the video tomorrow to look if I did something wrong."