NEW YORK — When his brilliant performance was finally over Tuesday, Sean Manaea gave the ball to his manager, said a few words to his infielders and began a different walk off the mound.
The crowd showered him with cheers, delighted with his dominance in the most important game of the wondrous 2024 New York Mets‘ season. His mind was elsewhere. He took a deep breath. He clapped his glove, tipped his hat to the adoring fans and blew two kisses. One toward them and one toward the sky.
“That was for my Aunt Mabel,” Manaea said. “Just got a message that she had passed away early this morning. And, yeah, so that game was for her.”
What he dedicated to her, given the context, was the best outing of his major league career in the Mets’ 7-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 3 of the National League Division Series. The 32-year-old left-hander pitched into the eighth inning, affording the Mets much-needed length to spare a taxed bullpen. He held the Phillies, a star-studded group familiar with October intensity, to three hits and two walks with 91 pitches. The only run charged to him scored after he exited.
The start, combined with two early blasts and more late-inning magic, gave the Mets a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series. The Mets can eliminate their division rival Phillies and advance to the National League Championship Series with a win in Game 4 on Wednesday.
“We’ve got to stay humble,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We’ve got to come back tomorrow. We have to prepare, we go about our business pregame, and then we’ve got to go out there, we got to compete and we’ve got to go out there and execute. We’ll see what happens.”
The Mets had gone 16 days without a home game before Tuesday. They left for the road unsure if they would return in 2024 after beating the Phillies on Sept. 22, commencing a whirlwind stretch that took them from the regular season to the playoffs, from Atlanta to Milwaukee, back to Atlanta, back to Milwaukee and, finally, to Philadelphia to begin this series Saturday.
Citi Field was ready for their homecoming. A raucous sellout crowd welcomed them for the franchise’s first divisional round game since 2015. Seymour Weiner, a World War II veteran who became an internet sensation after being honored at a game in April, wished the team well in a message played on the videoboard. Grimace, the purple McDonald’s mascot and team good luck charm since throwing out the first pitch June 12, took the 7 train to the game and was introduced holding a pumpkin — a recent source of inspiration for first baseman Pete Alonso.
The place erupted when Alonso blasted a first-pitch fastball from Aaron Nola, an old nemesis going back to their college days as SEC foes, to right field for a solo home run in the second inning. It was Alonso’s third postseason home run. All have been to the opposite field after he hit just four of his 34 homers in the regular season the other way.
“It’s more so just hitting the ball where it’s pitched and hitting the ball on the sweet spot of the bat,” Alonso said. “That’s pretty much all I’m trying to do every single AB.”
Jesse Winker doubled the Mets’ lead by launching a fastball from Nola to the second deck down the right-field line. New York tacked on two runs in the sixth, two in the seventh and another in the eighth to give the bullpen ample cushion after Manaea departed.
Manaea’s outing was not without turbulence. It surfaced in the sixth inning in the form of two walks to the top of the Phillies’ lineup to begin the frame, bringing up two-time MVP Bryce Harper and giving his manager a difficult decision. At that point, Mendoza was leaning toward removing Manaea after he faced Harper, a left-handed hitter, to avoid having him pitch to the right-handed Nick Castellanos for a third time.
Then Manaea started attacking again. He struck out Harper on three pitches — a rare left-on-left changeup and two sweepers. The rebound persuaded Mendoza to stick with him.
“Once he got Harper there,” Mendoza said, “I thought he had momentum back.”
Manaea didn’t stop attacking, jumping ahead 0-2 as Castellanos fouled off two pitches. Castellanos lined the third, a changeup out of the strike zone, to second baseman Jose Iglesias, who flipped the ball to shortstop Francisco Lindor at second base for a game-changing, inning-ending double play. Manaea unleashed two roars as Citi Field exploded around him.
“He was on the attack,” Mendoza said. “It was a different look today. … His mound presence, his demeanor, like there was something different about him today. I’m just proud of him.”
Manaea, whose midseason shift to a lower arm slot has netted rousing success before he hits free agency this winter, exacted some revenge with Tuesday’s outing. Two years ago, pitching for the San Diego Padres, the Phillies tagged him for five runs in 1⅓ innings out of the bullpen in Game 4 of the NLDS. The appearance concluded the worst season of his career. Desperate for answers, he emailed Driveline Baseball, the popular data-driven player development organization, that night.
“That moment for me was rock bottom pretty much,” Manaea said.
On Tuesday, he was at his peak on a day he will never forget.
