Eduardo Escobar homers in third straight game to help Mets beat Rangers

Eduardo Escobar got his power back, Carlos Carrasco bounced back, and the Mets ran it back, winning their 18th series out of 24 matchups this season.

Escobar homered for a third straight game in the Mets’ 4-1 win over the Rangers on Sunday afternoon at Citi Field. His slump is apparently in the rearview mirror. The third baseman has opened July with six RBI and three home runs in three games. His two-run blast off Jon Gray in the fourth inning on Sunday gave the Amazin’s the final lead they’d need to topple Texas.

“It’s really hard when you’re struggling and you’re thinking too much,” Escobar said. “No matter what you do in your life – player, lawyer, whatever – when you’re thinking too much, you’re in trouble. But if I come in here, happy every day, then it’s very good.”

The Mets (49-30) took two out of three from the Rangers to wrap up their five-game homestand, which began with a couple of ugly losses to the Astros, on a positive note. They are 18-5-2 this year. The club will enjoy a happy flight to Cincinnati where they will kick off a three-game series against the Reds on Monday.

Carrasco (9-7, 4.64 ERA) finally has a solid start to build off of for his next time out. The veteran right-hander held the Rangers to one run on six hits, struck out eight batters and walked one across 5.2 innings and 102 pitches. Carrasco is tied for the third-most wins in MLB.

“It feels nice,” Carrasco said of his outing. “Today I used more of my breaking balls, and went with my fastball in and out too. That combination today was great.”

After two consecutive abysmal outings against the Astros, in which he permitted 11 earned runs in 6.2 innings, Carrasco was once again confident in his pitching mechanics against Texas. The key for Carrasco’s success is the execution of his secondary pitches, and the 17 whiffs he got on his changeup, slider, sinker and curveball combined were indicative of just how good he felt on Sunday.

But no one enjoyed the Rangers series more than Escobar. Consistency will be the key for the third baseman as he will try to keep up his hot streak to finish out the first half of the season. Escobar said a few days ago he told himself it was a new month with new opportunities to shrug off his disappointing results. So far, at least, the pep talk has worked.

“You hate to see good people, good teammates, good competitors struggle like that,” Buck Showalter said of Escobar. “It’s painful. But through thick and thin he hasn’t changed – effort or defense.”

July has been kind to the 12-year big-league veteran who possesses the power to crush 20 or more home runs per season. Escobar has belted nine dingers in 72 games so far this year, with the All-Star break just over a couple of weeks away. Escobar said the only adjustment he made leading up to his sweet series against the Rangers was his mentality.

“I think the most important thing to me is to come in here and have fun,” Escobar said. “I can only control working hard every day and coming in here happy and playing hard. If I don’t homer, I don’t homer. Helping the team to win is the most important.”