Livescore
Sean Manaea continues to stake his claim as the de facto ace of the Mets rotation.
The 32-year-old left-hander turned in another brilliant outing on Sunday, tossing seven scoreless innings and allowing just two hits in a 2-0 win over the Chicago White Sox to complete a sweep and 7-3 road trip.
It marked the fifth time in his last seven starts that he has pitched into the seventh inning and he lowered his ERA to 3.35, proving to be a crucial piece of the rotation as the Mets remain in the thick of the NL Wild Card race, entering Sunday night 1.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves.
“He rose to the occasion today,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said after the game. “You could see there was a different demeanor today in those first four, five innings. …He’s been huge for us.”
Manaea held the White Sox hitless through the first 4.2 innings while pitching opposite of Chicago’s young ace, Garrett Crochet, who opened the game with seven consecutive strikeouts and kept the Mets hitless until Francisco Lindor led off the fourth inning with a home run.
That was all Manaea would need, earning praise from Lindor after the game.
“It’s been amazing to see how he has worked on his plan, his approach and he has executed it,” the Mets shortstop said. “He seems like he’s getting better as the year goes on, which is a good thing. So I’m happy how he’s doing it.”
Manaea began the season as a middle-to-back-end of the rotation piece, but he’s arguably become the team’s most reliable pitcher over the last two-plus months as he’s given the team a chance to win every time he takes the mound. The Mets are 10-2 in the last 12 games Manaea has started, dating back to June 26 vs. the Yankees.
“I’m not impressed because I’ve faced him before and it’s not fun to hit against him,” Lindor said. “And he’s a big competitor and he works hard and he prepares and he’s ready to go out there day in and day out and gives us the best chance to win.”
While Manaea’s start on Sunday came against a White Sox team on pace for a historically bad season, it was essential for him to continue to build off of his prior success and finish what was a grueling road trip that included games against the Padres and Diamondbacks, both ahead of the Mets in the wild card standings.
“We’re in a good spot,” Lindor said. “…We gotta continue to climb the mountain, we gotta continue to push, we gotta stay within ourselves and not let the outside noise get to us. We gotta focus on what we have here, protect it and compete. We gotta play good baseball. If we want to be where we want to and accomplish the goal that we all have, we have to play good baseball. We have to. There’s not a bad team that makes the. Playoffs , that’s why we play 162 games.”
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