This was the type of start that Carlos Carrasco hadn’t produced, really, since 2016, back when he made 25-plus starts a season and his outings possessed a degree of length that could reach the eighth and ninth innings.
It was the type of start the Yankees — in 2025, with the 38-year-old Carrasco starting for them after a minor league deal turned into a spot in the rotation — desperately needed, too, with Gerrit Cole (out for the year), Luis Gil (out until June), Clarke Schmidt (out until Wednesday) and Marcus Stroman (out for a still-to-be-determined amount of time) all sidelined.
And it was the type of appearance that boosted Carrasco’s numbers after his first three appearances resulted in a 7.71 ERA.
His five innings of one-hit pitching Monday during the Yankees’ 4-1 win over the Royals provided a bright spot for their rotation, and Carrasco struck out four batters, walked two, impressed manager Aaron Boone with his changeup and navigated a pitch count that kept rising from the opening batters of the game.
Carrasco’s role still remains murky once the Yankees return as close to full strength as they possibly can with their ace done for the season, but for one night, he provided a much-needed lift.
“He was great at not giving in to an aggressive lineup,” catcher Austin Wells said.
Carrasco’s lone blemish occurred in the third inning, when he ended a 10-pitch at-bat against Bobby Witt Jr. with a slider near the bottom of the zone that the Royals star deposited on the other side of the Yankee Stadium fence anyway.
By the end of that frame, with Kansas City hitters continuing to force deep counts and Carrasco walking two of the first three hitters he faced in the opening frame, his pitch count had already skyrocketed to 59.
“I was thinking about that I don’t have anything on base,” Carrasco said about the first-inning jam. “I just go pitch, one pitch at a time, and that’s what I did — and we were able to get out of the inning.”
After Witt’s homer, Carrasco prevented the final seven hitters he faced from reaching base, starting a stretch where the Yankees retired 15 in a row.
His changeup collected a 50 percent whiff rate, according to Baseball Savant, and produced five of his 10 swing-and-misses, and Carrasco turned to it for his final two outs — a strikeout and a foul out — of the night.
It marked Carrasco’s first start where he allowed fewer than two hits across at least five innings since 2016.
Plenty has changed for him since then — and recently, he bounced from the Mets to the Guardians and then to the Yankees between 2023 and the start of 2025, as his career stretched into its latter stage.
But with the Yankees needing a strong start, Carrasco delivered “just moxie, man,” Boone said.
“A big five innings by him,” Boone added.
