A bunch of positives in the Mets loss to the Braves
Sean Manaea gave the Mets a renewed reason to believe in him coming out of his first start of the season
What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets dropped Game 2 of their series with the Braves, 3-1 (box)
LHP Sean Manaea got his first start of the season, delivering six solid innings with two runs allowed on four hits, including a homer; he struck out six with no walks
Atlanta RF Eli White drove in both runs allowed by Manaea, driving in Matt Olson with a double in the second inning and then a solo homer in the fourth
3B/SS Bo Bichette and LF Juan Soto continued their latest hot streaks, each posting two-hit days
Bichette doubled in the bottom of the sixth and was driven in by 1B Mark Vientos for the Mets’ only run of the game
Braves starter Martín Perez stayed perfect at Citi Field, keeping the offense quiet while striking out four of 10 Mets to go down swinging on Saturday
RHP Austin Warren’s recent rough patch continued as he allowed an insurance homer to Michael Harris II; Warren has allowed five runs and two homers in his last three appearances
Who’s Hot 🥵
Bo Bichette is hitting .286/.276/.679 with eight hits, three homers, and eight RBI in his last seven games.
Juan Soto is hitting .292/.414/.625 with seven hits, two homers, three RBI, and five walks against just one strikeout in his last seven games.
Who’s Cold 🥶
Brett Baty is hitting just .184/.216/.204, with nine hits, no homers, four RBI, and just two walks against 15 strikeouts in his last 15 games.
Mark Vientos is hitting just .189/.204.321 with 20 hits, 23 strikeouts, and zero walks in his last 30 games.
Play of the Game ⭐️
Yeah, sure, let’s give the kid some more shine.
In his first appearance in center field in over a month, Carson Benge tracked down a long fly ball off the bat of Ozzie Albies in the top of the sixth inning.
To quote Gary Cohen, “he’s pulchritudinous, indeed.”
Just Mets Podcast 🎙️
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Down on the Farm 🌾
RF Cristian Pache (Triple-A): 4-for-4, 3 R, 1 2B, 1 BB, 1 SB
2B Jackson Cluff (Triple-A): 3-for-4, 1 2B, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 SB
CF Nick Morabito (No. 11 prospect, Triple-A): 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
RHP Jonathan Jimenez (Single-A): 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R (1 ER), 4 K, 0 BB
2B Jeremy Rodriguez (Single-A): 3-for-4, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 SB
RF Yohairo Cuevas (Single-A): 3-for-4, 1 2B, 3 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 2 SB
BOX SCORES
Single-A SLU | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (31-39) vs. Braves (46-24)
Where: Citi Field - Flushing, NY
Starters: RHP Freddy Peralta (4-5, 4.04) vs. RHP Bryce Elder (5-3, 2.66 ERA)
When: 1:40 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
Sean Manaea’s still got stuff left ✍️
I am sure there aren’t a lot of people squarely focused on baseball in New York right now. After all, the Knicks are World Champions, and world champions for the first time in most of our lifetimes. It has been 53 years since they won a title - congratulations to them and you should head over to Knicks Film School to be fully immersed in the Knickerbockers championship.
As for the Mets…
From the moment Sean Manaea got bumped to the bullpen earlier this season, I had a feeling it would be a good thing for him. Obviously, he hated it, but he took it in stride, and I commended him for doing so. His sentiments at the time were simple: he was going to just “let his pitching do the work.”
On Saturday, Manaea allowed two runs on four hits in his six innings, his longest outing of the season. Though he was haunted all day by Braves youngster Eli White, Manaea also struck out all of Atlanta’s heaviest hitters, sitting down Matt Olson, Austin Riley, and Jorge Mateo once apiece and Michael Harris II twice. It wasn’t a clean outing, but it still offered some encouraging signs that a proper return to the rotation may not be out of the question for this chess-loving lefty after all.
Here’s where Manaea stands so far in 2026:
15 G, 49.0 IP, 26 ER, 18 XBH, 6 HR, 51 K-17 BB, 4.78 ERA, 1.35 WHIP
Granted, not a particularly exciting pitching line. However, it’s his last seven games that have really started turning heads in his direction again, for the right reasons.
7 G, 26.2 IP, 20 H, 9 ER, 3 HR, 27 K-7 BB, 3.09 ERA, 1.01 WHIP
Not too shabby.
Though there were looming questions about his reduced velocity this spring, I held firm (and continue to) that lower velo wouldn’t be Manaea’s biggest problem against MLB competition — it would be where he places it. I’m a Location First guy ‘til I die, sue me.
So far, that theory is holding: his two most-used pitches this season are his fastball and his sweeper, and they’re working pretty well: both pitches are responsible for 38 of his 45 strikeouts on the season, with a nearly even split between them (20 for the four-seamer, 18 for the sweeper). Yesterday was exactly the same story: three K’s for the sweeper, two for the heater, 28% whiff rate between them. They also yielded five of Manaea’s six called strikes on the day, four of them credited to the four-seam alone. Location!
These are good charts. I like these charts. Look at all that movement on the fastball…we’ll get back to that.
When I first activated my Manaea Truther membership in March, I asserted that, despite his ‘stuff’ results being a bit lacking in spring training, working with lower average velo wouldn’t be a death sentence for his career. The main frame of reference for that claim was a 2018 season in which his average fastball velocity (vFA) was just 90.6 mph over 160 innings; Manaea finished that season with a 3.59 ERA.
While a quick look beneath the surface may initially make the argument look a bit weak — he also posted a 4.26 FIP, 4.64 xERA, and 16.5 K% that season — if you keep digging, you’ll see what I’m seeing. No, his strikeout numbers weren’t gaudy, and his expected results suggest he was the beneficiary of a good deal of good luck. Still, he was also allowing just a 1.08 WHIP and a 4.4% walk rate while stranding 75% of runners (second-highest of his career)… all of that tracks toward a successful season.
Comparing Manaea’s 2018 and 2026 results, I’m seeing quite a few statistical similarities and some key differences that actually swing in the modern Manaea’s favor. For example, they both elicited a 29% chase rate, among the highest marks of his career; they found barrels at the same frequency (8.8%); they allowed comparable hard contact (39.7% in 2018, 37.3% in 2026); and their xERAs are within less than half a run of one another (4.63 in 2018, 4.21 in 2026).
However, where 2026 Manaea is allowing twice as many walks as his past self, he’s striking out far more hitters, with a 23.4% K-rate this season against a minuscule 16% in 2018. Pair that with a relatively low overall exit velo allowed (87.8 mph), a tremendous 20% soft contact generation rate, and a career-low zone-swing rate (62.6%) alongside a career-high called-strike rate (18.3%), and this southpaw looks much more compelling as a character study.
And most interestingly, though also maybe least surprisingly, each of these iterations of Manaea has utilized a completely different group of pitches to get their results.
Operating with two totally different pitch mixes but still finding success in two comparable placement profiles doesn’t feel coincidental to me. Rather, it seems Manaea is rediscovering the angles and spots he hits best, with an updated, more mature bag of tricks.
He used to fill the zone with a repertoire that worked largely north-south; since famously lowering his arm angle, he’s naturally shifted to a more lateral attack angle. With a fastball that has so much arm-side run and a perfect tunneling partner in his sweeper, Manaea can more effectively spread the zone in multiple directions while also incorporating constant speed and shape changes. That’s a recipe for success if he can refine it.
My point with these charts is not to marvel at how many called and swinging strikes Manaea got working the corners and edges of the zone, of course…that’s the case for any pitcher who successfully works the corners and edges of the zone. The suggestion is more that, no matter what his repertoire is or what his mechanics are dictating he needs to do, Manaea has previously found a way to operate without blowing anyone’s doors off with mind-bending stuff.
There remains plenty of room to improve before Manaea slots back into a full-time rotation role: it cannot go unaddressed that he’s given up three homers in his last three outings, one per appearance. That’s far from an ideal trend and certainly something to keep an eye on.
But the overall pluses in recent weeks have certainly helped to quiet down the naysayers that were all but hunting this guy’s head mere months ago.
As he forecasted, his pitching is doing the work. And now the opportunity it killed him to lose is achingly within reach.
Around the League 🚩
In a 7-1 rout, Shohei Ohtani led off the game with a homer, and Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto took a perfect game into the eighth inning before losing it to a Mookie Betts error; the White Sox’s Tristan Peters then ended the no-hitter with a solo homer in the ninth
Tigers ace Tarik Skubal returned to the mound just 38 days after elbow surgery; he allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits with four strikeouts in 4.2 innings