Sean Manaea was terrific again, taking the ball in his fourth outing of the season Tuesday.
The big Mets left-hander found himself in immediate trouble, as the Padres struck first with a two-out Jackson Merrill RBI single in the bottom of the first, and then suddenly they were threatening again in the second.
Former Met Jose Iglesias led off the inning with a hustle double, and after advancing to third on a groundout, he was erased trying to score on a safety squeeze bunt on a terrific glove flip feed home from Manaea.
He found himself in complete control from that point on, though, setting down the next 12 San Diego hitters in order as he cruised his way through five terrific innings of work.
Manaea signaled towards Carlos Mendoza in the dugout that he had one more inning in him after striking out the final two batters in the fifth, but the skipper decided otherwise with him still working on a pitch count.
He had reached a new season-high of 86 pitches at that point.
“He was [asking for one more], but we still have an idea pitch count-wise,” Mendoza said. “We’re still kind of on that buildup with him and he reached that mark, but the good news is for him to be asking for one more, that tells you he’s feeling good, but we’re not there yet.
“He was a lot better with the way the ball was coming out — he looked really good.”
Manaea finished the night allowing just one earned run for the fourth consecutive outing since making his return from the injured list on three hits while not issuing a free pass and striking out four batters.
It’s still a very small sample size, but he’s now at a stellar 2.08 ERA and 0.87 WHIP.
Still, the Mets are going to need him to get back to being the big-inning arm he was last season.
While he's still wrapping up his build-up, he feels just about back to 100 percent.
“I feel good, I think I’m right there.”