The Philadelphia Phillies hold a nine-game lead in the NL East following Tuesday’s 9-3 setback, and the New York Mets (76-69) have utterly lost the second half of the NL East competition.
Starting pitcher Sean Manaea gave up two runs in the first inning following a double by Nick Castellanos, and two more in the second inning following consecutive home runs by Otto Kemp and Harrison Bader, which put the Mets down early.
The left-hander pitched three shutout innings after appearing defeated after a terrible first two innings. The Mets manager, Carlos Mendoza, summoned Manaea into the dugout tunnel for a conversation. But the damage was done, as Manaea lost for the third time this season.
Manaea, who is currently in the second year of a three-year, $75 million contract that was inked last offseason, has had a very challenging run. Despite continuing to strike out opposing hitters at a high rate (64 strikeouts in 50 innings), the 33-year-old veteran has posted a 5.76 ERA in 11 appearances this season and is no longer limiting hard contact as he was in 2024.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza declared that Manaea will start his next game and that the team is not currently considering a role change, despite growing calls for New York to remove him from the rotation.
According to Carlos Mendoza, Sean Manaea will start his next game. “At this time, the Mets are not thinking about changing roles,” Anthony DiComo of MLB.com stated.
The Mets are able to send struggling veterans down, as seen by the move they made a few days ago when they sent Kodai Senga to Triple-A to work on his mechanics before he returned to the major league roster. However, Manaea does not currently seem to be in that situation.
Manaea’s bursts of domination throughout the 2024 postseason, which helped propel New York to an NLCS berth, may have contributed to Mendoza’s faith in him. The Mets will try to cling onto the final NL wild card berth because winning the NL East is quite unlikely.
