The New York Mets starting rotation has mastered the Minnesota Twins over the first two games of this series. First, Jose Quintana allowed one run over six innings and bounced back after a rough first inning. Then, on Tuesday night, Sean Manaea took it another step further with arguably his best start in a Mets uniform.
Manaea pitched seven innings, allowing no runs on two hits, walking a batter and striking out a season-high 11 on 96 pitches (70 strikes) for his seventh win of the year. The only two hits the left-hander allowed were a single by Brooks Lee in the top of the third and an infield single by Carlos Santana in the fourth.
Sean Manaea’s 10th and 11th Ks. pic.twitter.com/I2IOP8UVbA
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 31, 2024
In his career, Manaea is not exactly known for racking up the strikeouts on a nightly basis. Last night was the second time in his entire career that he put up double-digit strikeouts and not allow a single run in a start. The other one was well… let’s just say historical.
Sean Manaea tonight for the Mets:
7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 11 K, 96 pitches/70 strikes
Only the second time in his career he’s had a double-digit strikeout scoreless appearance. The other one came on 4/22/2018, when he tossed a no-hitter.
— Mike Mayer (@mikemayer22) July 31, 2024
In terms of using his pitch arsenal, Manaea was able to get whiffs from more than one pitch. According to Baseball Savant, the veteran got five or more whiffs on his sweeper, four-seam fastball, and sinker (eight each on his sweeper and four-seam). The sweeper showed some dominance, as teams only hit that pitch with an average exit velocity of near 62 miles per hour.
Now, it comes as no surprise that Manaea dominated the Twins, considering his history against that team from his time in the American League. In his six outings (five starts) before last night against Minnesota, he was 5-1 with a 2.48 ERA.
July was an excellent month for the 32-year-old left-hander. In his six starts, he went 2-1 with a 2.70 ERA and had 36 strikeouts to 12 walks in 36 2/3 innings.
If you look at where Manaea’s numbers stack up compared to other NL pitchers in July, he was second in innings pitched, second in strikeouts, sixth in batting average against (.189), and eighth in WHIP (1.01).
The New York Mets did add Paul Blackburn at the trade deadline to help the rotation, but some fans are probably upset that they did not add a top arm with Kodai Senga out for the remainder of the regular season. If Manaea can continue to pitch as he did in July, he will become a pitcher who can help this team make a postseason push.
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