SAN FRANCISCO -- Mets pitcher Sean Manaea finally took a step out of no-man’s land Thursday night, making his second appearance of the year in just the right spot to face a lot of hitters. That was good news for Manaea, not necessarily for the team.
The “right spot” that manager Carlos Mendoza hoped for was a long relief outing, preferably in a game the Mets led by a bunch. Instead, it arrived with New York down three runs in a game they would lose to the Giants, 7-2.
Manaea allowed one run in 3 2/3 innings, finishing the game to preserve the rest of the bullpen. More importantly, he lasted 74 pitches, well beyond the magic number that Mendoza had sought.
Manaea was stuck, throwing just 29 pitches over 1 1/3 innings in his lone 2026 appearance entering Thursday. Mendoza wanted to stretch Manaea to at least 50 pitches before inserting him into a planned six-man rotation next time through. But there was no such opportunity for a reliever in all the tight games the Mets have played.
Manaea’s opportunity arose when the Giants knocked starter David Peterson out of the game in the fifth inning of a 5-2 game. Manaea allowed an inherited runner to score and surrendered a solo homer to Rafael Devers in the sixth, then got out of a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the seventh.
Peterson allowed six runs (five earned) in 4 1/3 innings. The unearned run was due to his own error, when he dropped a flip from first baseman Mark Vientos during a three-run Giants first.
Peterson surrendered a lot of loud contact from Giants hitters, including a Luis Arraez triple and Matt Chapman double, back to back, in a three-run first. Even the sacrifice flies by Jung Hoo Lee and Harrison Bader in the third inning sent Luis Robert Jr. toward the center-field wall were hard hit. Devers added a sixth-inning homer off Manaea that gave San Francisco a 7-2 lead.
The Mets' offense failed to support their pitchers, scoring twice in 5 1/3 innings against an erratic Robbie Ray. Bo Bichette doubled home a run in the first inning and Vientos hit his first homer of the year an inning later.
New York has totaled 14 runs over the six games since their 11-7 Opening Day win against the Pirates.