WASHINGTON — The Mets hold ready for the 2024 model of Sean Manaea to reappear, however after eight begins, there may be little to counsel that it’ll occur. The 2025 model of the left-hander sometimes runs out of fuel dealing with the order the third time by way of.
The left-hander ran out of fuel within the fifth inning Thursday afternoon at Nationals Park in a 9-3 loss to the Washington Nationals. The Mets dropped the collection, 2-1, and now head to Atlanta for a three-game collection towards the Braves.
“It’s a lot of different parts, but I think I’ve been saying it — it starts with our starters, starting pitching,” mentioned supervisor Carlos Mendoza. “They set the tone. When they go, the whole team pretty much goes.”
If that’s the case, then it’s essential the Mets get large performances by Nolan McLean, Clay Holmes and David Peterson this weekend. The Cincinnati Reds (67-51) are solely 0.5 video games behind the Mets (67-60) within the NL Wild Card standings forward of a weekend collection in Arizona towards the Diamondbacks. It’s far too shut for consolation for Mets followers who’ve lengthy watched the staff undergo and battle in Atlanta.
“We believe in each other,” mentioned outfielder Juan Soto. “We still think we can make the playoffs.”
Manaea (1-2) gave up 4 earned runs on three hits over solely 4 2/3 innings. He walked just one hitter and struck out eight, however he hit two batters, with each of these plunks turning into expensive. He was strong by way of the primary three innings, and the Mets took three runs off left-hander MacKenzie Gore to offer him a result in work with.
Within the backside of the fourth, the Nats (52-76) pushed a run throughout, partly due to the Mets’ personal errors. The primary hitter of the inning, CJ Abrams, struck out, however reached on a wild pitch when Manaea’s sweeper acquired away from catcher Hayden Senger, rolling almost all the way in which to the backstop. He later hit a batter to load the bases, however minimized the harm by permitting just one run.
Up 3-1 within the backside of the fifth, Manaea misplaced his already-wavering command. Brady Home singled to steer off, and Jacob Younger reached on a sacrifice bunt when first baseman Pete Alonso tried to get the lead runner at second base. Home was secure.
That introduced up the highest of the order. He retired James Wooden for the primary out, however hit Abrams to load the bases as soon as once more. Paul DeJong reduce the Mets’ result in one run with a sacrifice fly, and Manaea walked Andrés Chapparro. The Mets went to the bullpen for Tyler Rogers, who gave up a single to Riley Adams. Two runs scored earlier than Chapparro acquired caught in a rundown to finish the inning.
The harm was executed. The Nats had a 4-3 lead.
Manaea is struggling for solutions as to why he was in a position to carve up lineups so successfully final season, however has a 5.15 ERA this 12 months. The Mets assume he’s struggling to raise his fastball after the dealing with the order a couple of times. The fastball velocity can be down from about 92-93 to 91-92. It’s simply sufficient to make a distinction.
“The biggest thing for me is the velo, and using the fastball at the top,” Mendoza mentioned. “Last year he got a lot of swings and misses with that pitch, and he seems like once he gets that second time through, he’s having a hard time elevating the fastball.”
A sometimes laid-back Manaea was clearly pissed off after this outing, struggling to grasp why he can’t elevate the way in which he as soon as did.
“I would just say in general, I don’t think I’ve been doing like a great job of elevating my fastball,” Manaea mentioned. “I think the third time through, they’re just kind of capitalizing on that. I think that’s key. I think I’m doing everything in between starts, I’ve just got to execute.”
It grew to become 5-3 when Rogers gave one up within the sixth, and 6-3 when Ryne Stanek did the identical within the eighth. A 3-run homer by Wooden in the identical inning dropped the dagger on the Mets.
Too usually the season, the Mets have taken a lead, misplaced it, after which confirmed little life the remainder of the way in which by way of. That was the case as soon as once more. They put two on within the fifth with one out, however right-hander Jackson Rutledge (2-2) got here in from the bullpen to retire Mark Vientos and Brett Baty. That they had solely two extra base runners.
When happening, the lineup out of the blue turns into over-aggressive in an effort to make one thing occur. That usually results in errors, swinging in dangerous counts, and strikeouts towards relievers.
“Back-to-back nights, we didn’t have good at bats against [their bullpen],” Mendoza mentioned. “They kept us off-balance, and we chased. I think the biggest thing for us was chasing.”
Francisco Lindor led off the sport with a house run off Gore, his twenty fifth of the season. Starling Marte hit his seventh of the 12 months within the third inning, and Baty scored on a sacrifice fly within the fourth.
Whereas the Mets may nonetheless be in a playoff spot within the standings, dropping a number of collection to non-playoff groups doesn’t precisely encourage confidence that they’ll make it to October.
Initially Printed: August 21, 2025 at 6:34 PM EDT
