QUEENS, NY — Consider Major League Baseball’s postseason as the t-bone steak that had been dangled in front of the starving entity that is New York Mets and their fans for the last nine years, but has been tantalizingly out of reach, save for a pair of demoralizing Wild Card exits in 2016 and 2022.
On Tuesday night at Citi Field for Game 3 of the NLDS — the first NLDS game in Queens since 2015 — the baseball gods finally opened the cage. So the Mets, and Flushing altogether, feasted.
The Mets’ offense continued to click to support a brilliant seven-inning gem from Sean Manaea in a 7-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies to take a 2-1 series lead in the NLDS. One more win will send the Mets to the NLCS for the first time since 2015 — a considerable upset in the making, considering the Phillies were the second-best team in all of baseball during the regular season behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“Those moments are huge,” Manaea said. “I don’t need to up the energy by myself so it’s really using what I have and using that moment to focus in and execute. I think I did a pretty good job of that.”
Pete Alonso and Jesse Winker provided solo home runs in the second and fourth innings to stake Manaea to an early lead before a pair of late, two-out, two-RBI singles in the sixth and seventh innings from Starling Marte and Jose Iglesias broke it open.
Francisco Lindor provided a bit more insurance with an RBI double down the right-field line in the eighth.
While the Mets’ offense got to Phillies star righty Aaron Nola and the ensuing four relievers used, Manaea pitched the game of his life, going seven innings while allowing just one run on three hits with six strikeouts and a pair of walks.
He saw the first batter of the eighth inning, Edmundo Sosa, who rolled an infield single to third, which ended his night. Sosa ultimately came around to score on a Bryce Harper RBI single off reliever Phil Maton to provide a small blemish on Manaea’s otherwise brilliant stat line.
“The key overall was attack the hitters and stay on the attack,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of his starter. “What an outing. What an amazing job from him today.”
Alonso blew the non-existent roof off of Citi Field early, leading off the bottom of the second inning when he smacked a Nola first-pitch fastball 384 feet the other way over the right-field fence to put the Mets on the board.
“I’m just happy I put a good swing on the ball,” Alonso said. “Me and Aaron have faced each other a lot over the years whether it’s in the big leagues or college. He knows me, I know him, and I’m just really happy I was able… to come through for the team right there.”
It was his third home run of the playoffs as he continues wiping away what was a down 2024 regular season, by his standards.
“Right now, I’m just trying to get a pitch I can handle and put a good swing on it and stay within myself,” Alonso said. “Wherever it goes out, if it does, I’m happy it does. It’s just a product of a good swing. The pitch was away, so I’m really glad. If I’m hitting balls the other way, it’s typically a good sign.”
It surpassed the Mets’ production from the last playoff game that the Queens ballpark hosted when they were shut out and one-hit by the San Diego Padres in Game 3 of the 2022 Wild Card Series.
While Manaea worked through a two-on, two-out jam by getting Bryce Harper to ground out in the third inning, he got some help from his defense in the fourth. Alec Bohm rang a liner off the wall in the gap in right-center, but center-fielder Tyrone Taylor played the bounce with the barehand and fired a strike to second to get the speedy Phillie as Lindor administered the tag on his head as he slid into the bag.
Winker doubled the Mets’ advantage in the bottom of the frame when he jumped all over a Nola fastball that sat up in the zone and deposited it 399 feet into the second deck of the right-field stands.
“That’s what you dream about as a kid, and you want to help out any way you can,” Winker said. “Such a great clubhouse, such a great city.”
The demonstrative Met, who has become a cult hero of sorts after being one of the fan base’s most notable villains, stood for a few extra seconds to admire his shot, which had plenty of room between it and the right-field foul pole.
“It just happened,” Winker said. “…I have no rhyme or reason for it. It was one of those things that stopped me in my tracks.”
Manaea answered by striking out a pair in a 1-2-3 bottom of the fifth inning that took all of seven pitches to put him at 63 on the night at that point.
But after Nola struck out the side — he struck out four straight following Winker’s home run — Manaea worked his way into trouble in the sixth after walking Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner to lead off the frame. He rebounded as impressively as one can against the heart of Philadelphia’s lineup, getting Harper to strike out swinging on the sweeper before getting Nick Castellanos to line out to Iglesias, who flipped to Lindor at second to double up Schwarber and end the inning.
“It was a hard decision there. I had Reed Garrett in the pen, and it was [Manaea’s] third time through the [Phillies’] order,” Mendoza said. “Once he got Harper there, I thought he had the momentum back. I always liked his presence and his demeanor on the mound. He was always on the attack.”
As Manaea stalked off the mound, he screamed to the heavens, perhaps matching the energy of the 43,093 Mets fans who had placed their hopes and dreams on his left shoulder.
“Just attack,” Manaea said. “Don’t be too fine with things. Don’t be too cute or too fancy… I know the defense behind me is incredible, and we can do incredible things, and I just have to trust that.”
Riding the momentum, the Mets ultimately ran Nola from the game in the bottom of the sixth when he allowed a lead-off single to Mark Vientos before walking Brandon Nimmo and Alonso to load the bases with no outs.
Phillies reliever Orion Kerkering coaxed an Iglesias grounder to second, which cut Vientos down at home before getting Jesse Winker to fly out to shallow right for the second out, which also did not score a run. But Marte came through, lining a 1-0 sweeper to center to plate a pair and put the Mets up 4-0.
Manaea shut the Phillies down, yet again, in the seventh, needing just seven pitches to get through the 1-2-3 inning. Iglesias gave the Mets even more breathing room in the bottom of the frame with a two-out, bases-loaded single to score two more.
