WASHINGTON — The Mets keep waiting for the 2024 version of Sean Manaea to reappear, but after eight starts, there is little to suggest that it will happen. The 2025 version of the left-hander typically runs out of gas facing the order the third time through.
The left-hander ran out of gas in the fifth inning Thursday afternoon at Nationals Park in a 9-3 loss to the Washington Nationals. The Mets dropped the series, 2-1, and now head to Atlanta for a three-game series against the Braves.
The Cincinnati Reds (67-51) are only 0.5 games behind the Mets (67-60) in the NL Wild Card standings ahead of a weekend series in Arizona against the Diamondbacks. It’s far too close for comfort for Mets fans who have long watched the team suffer and struggle in Atlanta.
Manaea (1-2) gave up four earned runs on three hits over only 4 2/3 innings. He walked only one hitter and struck out eight, but he hit two batters, with both of those plunks becoming costly. He was solid through the first three innings, and the Mets took three runs off left-hander MacKenzie Gore to give him a lead to work with.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Nats (52-76) pushed a run across, in part because of their own patience and in part because of Manaea. The first hitter of the inning, CJ Abrams, struck out, but reached on a wild pitch when Manaea’s sweeper got away from catcher Hayden Senger, rolling nearly all the way to the backstop. He later hit a batter to load the bases, but minimized the damage by allowing only one run.
Up 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth, Manaea lost his already-wavering command. Brady House singled to lead off, and Jacob Young reached on a sacrifice bunt when first baseman Pete Alonso tried to get the lead runner at second base. House was safe.
That brought up the top of the order. He retired James Wood for the first out, but hit Abrams to load the bases once again. Paul DeJong cut the Mets’ lead to 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 before Chapparro got caught in a rundown to end the inning.
The damage was done. The Nats had a 4-3 lead.
It became 5-3 when Rogers gave one up in the sixth, and 6-3 when Ryne Stanek did the same in the eighth. A three-run homer by Wood in the same inning dropped the dagger on the Mets.
Too often the season, the Mets have taken a lead, lost it, and then showed little life the rest of the way through. That was the case once again. They put two on in the fifth with one out, but right-hander Jackson Rutledge (2-2) came in from the bullpen to retire Mark Vientos and Brett Baty. They had only two more base runners. Interim manager Miguel Cairo mixed and matched his bullpen effectively for the second straight night.
Francisco Lindor led off the game with a home run off Gore, his 25th of the season. Starling Marte hit his seventh of the year in the third inning, and Baty scored on a sacrifice fly in the fourth.
While the Mets might still be in a playoff spot in the standings, dropping multiple series to non-playoff teams doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that they’ll make it to October.
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