Sean Manaea pitches well in Game 1 of doubleheader

Manaea held his own with an impressive showing against the Dodgers last Friday, allowing just one run over six innings. It’ll be burgeoning star Christian Scott taking the ball opposite Braves ace Chris Sale during Wednesday’s nightcap at Citi Field. Get your popcorn ready for that one.

This was a great start by Manaea against a tough Dodgers lineup. He did get some help from right fielder Carson Benge who threw one runner out at home and started another relay to get one at third, but don’t let that take too much away from Manaea’s outing. His fastball led the charge with a 61% usage rate – nearly double his season average – and he had no problem crowding hitters from both sides of the plate with it. It also sat right at 91 mph, a big deal for Manaea after struggling to both build up and maintain his velocity earlier in the season. With it and his confidence to challenge hitters in the zone back, he has turned in a 3.75 ERA over his last 13 outings dating back to May 17th. Next up is a meeting with the Braves at home.

Manaea gave up seven hits, walked two and struck out seven. He fell to 2-5 with the loss. Manaea ran into trouble immediately, allowing a single to Trea Turner and a two-run home run to Kyle Schwarber before recording his first out. It didn’t get much better from there as Manaea allowed another home run, this one to Turner in the fifth inning. In seven starts since moving into the rotation, he has a 4.48 ERA with 36 strikeouts in 36 2/3 innings. Manaea is lined up to face the Dodgers at home next weekend.

Manaea struck out six and walked one while throwing 70 percent of his pitches for strikes. He recorded just eight whiffs and an eight percent swinging strike rate on the day, so it wasn’t a dominant outing, but he filled the zone with strikes on his fastballs and was able to get strikeouts on the few times he did get into two-strike counts. Things get tougher for him with the Brewers and Dodgers up after the All-Star break.

Manaea gave up a solo homer to Eli White in the second inning. The Braves then got to him in the third for three runs on a walk, a hit batter, and three hits. Mauricio Dubon would extend the lead with a solo homer in the fourth. Manaea would give the Mets one more scoreless inning, ending his day after five with four strikeouts. The 34-year-old left-hander will take a 5.16 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, and a 68/23 K/BB ratio across 68 innings into a start against the Royals in New York on Thursday.

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.

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 will have his scheduled start pushed back an extra day in the wake of Monday’s rainout at Citi Field. It also eliminates the possibility of a two-start week where he would’ve had to face the red-hot Phillies this weekend. It’ll be Sean Manaea taking the ball for the other contest during Wednesday’s twin bill before Freddy Peralta starts Thursday’s series finale.

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.

After a scoreless first inning, the Braves put a run on the board against Manaea with a base hit and a double in the second inning. Eli White later took him deep for a solo homer in the fourth inning. Manaea would go on to toss two more scoreless frames, pitching well overall for a quality start. He struck out six. It was Manaea’s longest outing of the season and his first traditional start. Still, he’s pitched well over the last six weeks, posting a 3.33 ERA since the start of May. He’ll take a 4.78 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, and a 51/17 K/BB ratio across 49 innings into a start against the Phillies in Philadelphia on Thursday.