Nolan McClean to start during Wednesday’s doubleheader

Peralta’s disastrous season just keeps getting worse. He gave up his first run after just the first three batters of the game. He had two of those hitters down to their final strike, but couldn’t put them away. Then, his entire four-run third inning debacle came with two outs. The biggest blow of that inning came from Sean Keys, who hit his first career home run. Just before that, he had Ernie Clement down to his final strike and could’ve escaped this jam without any runs on the board. Instead, after missing with a curveball, he came back with a fastball in the zone that Clement laced for an RBI double. Between poor command and a lack of confidence in all of his breaking stuff, Peralta is a shell of himself right now. He’ll take a 4.81 ERA with 92 strikeouts and 38 walks across 95 1/3 innings into his next scheduled start that could come Monday against the Braves or Tuesday against the Royals depending on how the Mets structure their rotation with an off-day on Thursday.

McLean allowed just three hard-hit balls in his first scoreless start of the year. He’s previously allowed only one run five times, including 13 days ago against the Reds when the lone run he gave up was unearned. This makes him 5-5 with a 3.78 ERA ahead of next start Monday in Atlanta.

It was not one of Manaea’s better velocity days, as he was down to 90.4 mph tonight after coming in at 91.2-91.5 mph in each of his previous three starts. That’s definitely something to watch. Manaea seems like a decent enough bet as a bottom-of-the-rotation mixed-league option when he’s above 91 mph, but not so much if he’s back to 89-90 mph, as he typically was as a reliever at the start of the year. He’ll get the Braves this weekend.

Peralta, 30, allowed five hits and a walk while striking out five. The Mets once again struggled defensively, and errors by Ronny Mauricio and Carson Benge allowed all three runs to not count against Peralta’s ERA. While he did issue just the one walk, he wasn’t exactly a strike-throwing machine, as he landed just 54-of-98 pitches in the zone. He was Greg Maddux mixed with Pedro Martinez compared to his last start when he gave up 10 runs in 2 2/3 innings versus the Phillies, but this wasn’t Peralta at his absolute best; even when accounting for the lack of defensive support. He’s set to face the Blue Jays in Toronto next week.

This poor result was partially not having great command and partially his defense utterly failing him. The Mets made six total errors in this game – all on the infield – and two were made behind Manaea. Past that, Brett Baty ran into the wall in right field on a ball that could’ve been caught and Bo Bichette over-charged a bunt from Pete Crow-Armstrong that sailed right past him. That wound up being Manaea’s last batter in an ugly outing, but we can hang our hats on the fact that his fastball still sat above 91 mph and he forced 10 swings-and-misses. He’s scheduled to face the Blue Jays next time out.

McLean threw four scoreless innings to start the game and then struck out the first two hitters of the fifth inning before he allowed a single to Pete Crow-Armstrong, a double to Michael Conforto, and a homer to Michael Busch. In the fifth inning, he allowed a one-out double to Nico Hoerner, an infield single to Miguel Amaya, and then another two-out home run to Dansby Swanson. On the day, McLean struck out nine, walked two, and posted an impressive 18 percent swinging strike rate and 36 percent CSW. He didn’t have great command of the four-seamer and sweeper, and a few poorly spotted pitches came back to bite him. He’ll face the Blue Jays on the road next.

Peralta gave up 10 hits, walked one and struck out two. He fell to 5-6 with the loss. Peralta uncharacteristically couldn’t get out of the third inning before allowing 10 runs. His ERA ballooned up to 4.83 due to the disastrous start. It was easily Peralta’s shortest start of the season. He had a 2.70 ERA last year, but that appears to be an outlier at this point given his 3.61 career-ERA and how he’s pitched for the Mets this year. Peralta is lined up to face the Cubs at home next week.

Manaea struck out five batters on the night while allowing only one base on balls. The Phillies scratched out single runs against him in the first, third and fourth innings — the last of which came on a throwing error by AJ Ewing. The 34-year-old southpaw got a whopping 16 swings and misses on 95 pitches in the contest — 11 of those on his sweeper — while registering a strong CSW of 32 percent. He’ll tote a 4.64 ERA, 1.34 WHIP and a 56/18 K/BB ratio (54 1/3 innings) into Wednesday’s matchup against the Cubs.

The run came in the third after a Mark Vientos error and a double to left that a better outfielder than Juan Soto would have caught. It’s just McLean’s fourth victory, though it’s the 10th time this season he’s allowed two runs or fewer. With nine strikeouts today, he’s currently tied for seventh in the majors at 97 on the year. He’s due for home starts against the Cubs and Phillies next week.

Peralta only struck out two while walking one. He got into trouble in the first inning, which affected his workload. He finished with 90 pitches, but the Mets didn’t want to push it after a shaky fifth. His strikeout rate has been down this year while his ERA sits at 3.90. It’s the third time in four years he’s been between 3.68 and 3.90. Last year’s 2.70 is looking like the outlier. Peralta’s next start lines up on the road in Philadelphia.