The first key to success is failure. And the first pitch of Sean Manaea‘s brilliant start Thursday against the Royals was the definition of unsuccessful.
Lane Thomas came up to the plate, and before many had sat down, deposited a four-seamer 406 feet into the left field seats. The pitch gave the Royals an instant one-run lead, but wound up being half of the Royals’ total runs in the Mets’ 7-3 win over Kansas City in front of 33,868 fans.
Photo Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
Despite Thomas providing his eighth career leadoff homer, the Royals couldn’t muster much against Manaea. He was in vintage form.
The lefty followed the leadoff homer by retiring the next six Royals in a row. Bobby Witt Jr. broke the streak with another solo home run, but then Manaea retired another five consecutively.
Overall, Manaea allowed just five total hits, with two of them coming in the seventh inning. More importantly, Manaea walked only one batter Thursday, which limited the damage from the two homers.
Thursday’s start was incredibly promising from Manaea, providing an important reminder as to why he’s signed to a three-year contract. He went seven innings for the first time this season, a feat he matched eight total times in the second half of 2024.
Manaea’s control was evident throughout the whole day and was the reason he got through seven innings. 55 of his 97 pitches were in the strike zone, and he generated eight swings and misses. Manaea wound up striking out six batters and allowing two earned runs across seven innings.
Just as it was Wednesday, the Mets starter did his job long enough for the offense to kick into gear.
After Witt Jr. gave the Royals a 2-1 lead with his solo blast, the Mets offense knocked down the Royals with a five-run fifth.
The inning began when defensive replacement Tyrone Taylor launched a homer to left field off Michael Wacha to tie the game at two. It was the beginning of Taylor’s 2-for-3 game, who went into center field after Mark Vientos left the game due to a hand injury and A.J. Ewing shifted to second base.
The table was further set when the Mets loaded the bases via singles from Brett Baty and Ewing, plus a walk to Juan Soto. Bo Bichette gave the Mets the lead and continued the rally with a sacrifice fly to center field, but the Mets erupted behind Benge and a throwing error by Thomas.
Benge floated a seeing-eye single in front of Thomas, driving in the go-ahead run to put the Mets up 3-2. But when Thomas went for the outfield assist on Soto at third base, his throw ended up toward the Royals dugout, allowing Soto to score. Francisco Alvarez also followed with a line drive, RBI single to extend the Mets’ lead to 6-2.
By the time the dust had settled, the Mets were up by four, and Wacha was out of the game.
Wacha was bullied by his former club Thursday. He went only 4 2/3 innings and allowed six earned runs. It was the first time Wacha had failed to pitch five innings since September 16th, 2025 against the Mariners.
The Mets would add one more run in the seventh behind a Soto solo homer. It was a nice make-up for Soto after he committed the error in the top of the inning to allow an unearned run to Manaea’s ledger.
Vientos left the game after being hit in the hand with a Wacha fastball. He stayed in the game initially to run the bases, but was pulled for defense in the top of the third. There’s no confirmation yet of the severity of the injury.
Thursday’s win was the first series victory for the Mets in almost a month. Their last also came at Citi Field against the Braves, where they also won the rubber game. The Mets offense was the main factor in this series victory, with the club scoring 25 runs across three games.
Player of the Game
Sean Manaea was the player of the game Thursday against the Royals. The lefty allowed three runs (two earned) across seven innings, reaching the seven innings pitched mark for the first time since September 21, 2024 against the Phillies.
On Deck
The last series of the first half begins tomorrow against the Boston Red Sox. Nolan McLean takes the rubber for the Mets, looking to build off his six-inning outing against the Braves. The Mets will face Sonny Gray, who missed the All-Star Game despite pitching to a 2.61 ERA this season.
The game will be available to stream on Apple TV. The game will also be broadcast on 880 AM.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source metsmerizedonline.com ’
