It’s going to be hard to beat the Mets if they get this version of Carlos Carrasco all year.

They’ve already got Max Scherzer, at some point they’ll hopefully get Jacob deGrom back, and now Carrasco has found the wayback machine. In Thursday’s 6-2 win over the Giants, Carrasco went 7.2 innings, notched seven strikeouts, and kept San Francisco to just four hits.

His slider — the telltale sign of Carrasco’s effectiveness — appears to be back, at least through the first three starts of his so far resurgent year. Carrasco unspooled 23 of them on Thursday afternoon; ten of them resulted in either a called strike or a swing and miss.

“It feels completely different this year,” Carrasco proudly said at his locker. “To have four pitches for strikes is even better. Sometimes we go out there, and we only have two. But more importantly, the team is winning games.”

After the visitors got on the board in the bottom of the second, Carrasco retired 18 straight Giants, a run that took him from the second inning to the first batter of the eighth, when Luis Guillorme ruined the streak with a throwing error. Carrasco’s combination of efficiency and filth is a godsend for the Mets, who watched last summer as Carrasco turned in the worst stretch of his career.

The six runs from the Mets’ hitters — five of which came in the first three innings — were more than enough to support Carrasco. The way they got some of those runs (two home runs, a sac fly after a picturesque old-school hit-and-run, and a two-out, two-run RBI single) showed the type of offensive diversity that manager Buck Showalter is looking for.

“You’re gonna have to do some things,” Showalter said about the art of hitting. “Solo home runs usually don’t beat you. It’s good that our players see there are other ways to score runs. But we did it a lot of different ways today.”

Eduardo Escobar pulled his first home run as a Met, going 356 feet to right field off Anthony DeSclafani. Escobar has been one of general manager Billy Eppler’s moves already paying tremendous dividends. Thursday was probably a manifestation of the offseason visions that Eppler had when he signed Escobar, as the versatile infielder supplemented his home run with yet another walk, bringing his total to 12 on the season.

Francisco Lindor had the other long ball for the Mets. Playing a day game after a night game, Lindor was the designated hitter for this one, and it goes down as another correctly-pressed button by Showalter. Lindor went 0-for-5 in the Wednesday night loss and wasted no time moving on from that. The second pitch he saw on Thursday quickly became his fourth home run of 2022.

While Carrasco was unable to finish the eighth inning (Mike Yastrzemski rudely redirected his final pitch of the day off the facing of the right field upper deck), his mid-inning removal allowed for a thunderous ovation from the Citi Field crowd. Carrasco became the first Met starter to pitch into the eighth inning this season. Prior to Thursday’s virtuoso performance, the last time Cookie went 7.2 innings was May 4, 2019 while pitching for Cleveland.

“[Showalter] said, ‘Great job’ and I just walked away,” Carrasco said with a smile. “I was really happy. When I looked to the board and saw almost eight innings, that’s good.”

The victory gives the Mets three out of four against the National League’s best regular season team from a year ago. The hype around this team is both real and well-earned. At the conclusion of their game on Thursday, the Mets lead the National League in wins (10) and runs scored (67). If the 28,760 fans in attendance on a mid-week, overcast afternoon are any indication, the city is behind them too.

“It feels great,” Mark Canha said after the game. Thursday’s win was the first Canha played in at Citi Field due to his recent stint on the COVID injured list. “We’ve played really good baseball for these last three days. We got a really deep lineup. I think we know that. Everyone is kind of feeding off each other early. You have to mention the guys who have been here and how welcoming they’ve been.”

Next up is six games in Arizona and St. Louis. If the Mets can sustain this level of play while they’re on the road, their next home series against Philadelphia to end the month is sure to be one of the hottest tickets around.

“We’re the New York Mets,” Lindor said emphatically. “We are a good team.”

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