The Philadelphia Phillies cannot be stopped, and it was New York Mets starter Sean Manaea who learned of that firsthand on Tuesday. Manaea, in a 9-3 loss to the Phillies, allowed four runs in five innings of work and was quite overmatched in a few at-bats as Philly poured it on to increase their division lead to nine games over New York.
It looked as though the 33-year-old lefty was headed for a nightmare outing; he allowed two runs in each of his first two innings on the night and he seemed rattled as everything the Phillies did seemed to have the crowd at Citizens Bank Park on its feet. But Manaea rebounded well enough to throw three shutout innings after that before manager Carlos Mendoza pulled him.
After the game, Manaea revealed that a pep talk from the Mets manager went a long way towards him regaining his confidence, and he did at least did well enough to keep his team in the game even though he got off to a rocky start on the night.
“Mendy believes in me, so why can't I believe in myself? It was kind of nice to do this thing. It's nice to hear from the leader of this team,” Manaea said with a smile on his face, per SNY on X (formerly Twitter).
Sean Manaea talked about his chat with Carlos Mendoza in the dugout after the second inning:
"Mendy believes in me, so why can't I believe in myself? It's nice to hear from the leader of this team" pic.twitter.com/gEJ4FRrvCM
— SNY (@SNYtv) September 10, 2025
Finishing off innings was Manaea's problem on Tuesday; he got two outs in both innings before he proceeded to allow a Nick Castellanos two-RBI double in the first and consecutive home runs from Otto Kemp and Harrison Bader in the second that got the scoring started for the Phillies.
But with the playoffs nearing, this is not the time to lose confidence in the team, and Mendoza is doing his part in making sure that the Mets remain composed even with the pressure mounting.
Mets' Sean Manaea has had a rough go as of late
Manaea was brought back by the Mets this offseason with the expectation that he'll be one of their best pitchers in 2025. But that hasn't quite materialized yet for Manaea. He's had his fair share of injury problems that delayed his season debut until mid-July, and he hasn't quite found his footing just yet.
In fact, the past seven starts for Manaea have been a bit rough. After four straight starts allowing just one run per game to begin his year, he has allowed at least four earned runs in six of his past seven games, including his Tuesday night loss to the Phillies.
