New York Mets right-hander Trevor Williams lasted four innings in a spot start on Tuesday against the Houston Astros, filling a void in the rotation that might not be vacant much longer.
Right-hander Max Scherzer was unavailable for the Mets during their 8-2 loss in the opener of a two-game interleague set against the Astros, but he did make his first rehab start for Double-A Binghamton on Tuesday, a positive development for a staff without aces Scherzer and Jacob deGrom.
Scherzer allowed two earned runs on three hits and one walk with six strikeouts over 3 1/3 innings. He threw 65 pitches in his first action since sustaining a left oblique strain on May 18.
“I want to get back out there so bad,” Scherzer said. “You put in all this work, you see the team playing great baseball, you want to be out there competing and winning with them. For me, I want to be in the big leagues, not a (Binghamton) Rumble Pony.”
Right-hander Carlos Carrasco (8-2, 3.96 ERA) will start the series finale for the Mets on Wednesday in Houston. He notched his latest victory on Friday, when he limited the Miami Marlins to three runs on eight hits and two walks with seven strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings in a 10-4 win.
Carrasco, 7-1 with a 3.74 ERA over his past nine starts, is three wins shy of becoming the eighth Venezuelan pitcher to reach 100 career victories.
Carrasco is 4-3 with a 3.69 ERA over nine career appearances (eight starts) against the Astros. His last start against Houston was in April 2019, when he allowed four runs on six hits and two walks with eight strikeouts over 6 2/3 innings in a 4-1 road loss with Cleveland. He is 2-2 with a 2.12 ERA in four starts on the road against Houston.
Right-hander Luis Garcia (4-5, 3.41 ERA) is the scheduled starter for the Astros on Wednesday. Garcia earned his first victory in more than a month in his previous start. He held the Texas Rangers to two runs (one earned) on four hits, with a career-high-tying nine strikeouts, over six innings in a 9-2 win on June 15.
Garcia had been 0-4 with a 4.44 ERA in his previous five starts.
Garcia, who will make his first career start against the Mets, is 1-4 with a 5.12 ERA and 1.295 WHIP in seven career interleague appearances (six starts), with 35 strikeouts in 31 2/3 innings.
Like the Mets, the Astros received a measure of good news regarding their rotation on Tuesday.
Right-hander Jake Odorizzi will make the first of two rehab starts on Friday with Triple-A Sugar Land before a potential reinstatement from the injured list. Odorizzi has been sidelined since May 16 with a lower left leg tendon strain. He was 3-0 with a 0.79 ERA over his past four starts.
“He’s worked hard to get back to that point,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “I’m sure he’s anxious to get back on the mound. He’ll have a couple of assignments to get his workload back up. We’re excited to get him back.”
–Field Level Media
