Sean Manaea's gem, Pete Alonso's homer lift Mets past Phillies in NLDS Game 3
Mets starting pitcher Sean Manaea reacts after closing out the top of the sixth inning against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 3 of the NLDS on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024 at Citi Field. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
On the cusp of clinching again, the Mets are approaching a feat achieved by none of their predecessors: celebrating at Citi Field.
Sixteen years into this ballpark’s life, through a rebuild and the Five Aces and a pandemic and the change in team ownership, no version of the Mets has done what every club wants to do, form a mob on the field, deck the halls in sheets of plastic and pop bottles — in their own stadium, in front of their own fans.
These Mets are within a game of that. They beat the Phillies, 7-2, Tuesday night in Game 3 of this NL Division Series. They own a 2-games-to-1 lead in the best-of-five matchup for the right to advance to the Championship Series.
That means they can end it in Game 4, which is 5 p.m. Wednesday. Mets lefthander Jose Quintana will pitch opposite Phillies lefthander Ranger Suarez.
If needed, Game 5 would be Friday in Philadelphia.
The Mets don’t want it to get that far.
“It would be fantastic to get it done,” said Pete Alonso, whose second-inning home run against Aaron Nola, off the face of the second deck in rightfield, provided an early lead. “But we've got to stay within ourselves, focus on the task at hand pitch to pitch, out to out, inning to inning. I believe if we can do that, stay right there in the groove of things and don't try to do too much in each moment, I think we'll be able to get it done tomorrow.”
Sean Manaea said: “If that's here, it would be amazing. If not, then we've just got to finish it up.”
The Mets won comfortably via a thorough, well-rounded offensive effort — homers from Alonso and Jesse Winker early; bases-loaded, two-out, two-run singles from Starling Marte and Jose Iglesias late — but Manaea was the star.
He spun a seven-plus inning masterpiece, parlaying good pitching with a bit of good fortune. He scattered three hits and two walks (and two hit-by-pitches) and struck out six.
When manager Carlos Mendoza pulled him following a leadoff infield single in the eighth, Manaea walked off the mound to a standing ovation from the sold-out crowd of 44,093, tipped his cap and looked to/kissed the sky. He found out before the game that an aunt of his died.
“That game was for her,” Manaea said.
Francisco Lindor said: “He was on a mission. It felt like he wanted this moment . . . Sean doesn't really show emotions, and today he showed a lot for him. And that's special.”
He started off iffy. The top of the first featured batted balls of greater than 106 mph by each of three hitters: Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner and Bryce Harper. But all were right at defenders for outs.
In the sixth, Manaea began to teeter, issuing walks to Schwarber and Turner to put two on with no outs. That triggered a mound visit from pitching coach Jeremy Hefner. Mendoza said he considered yanking Manaea then, especially with the Phillies’ best player, Harper, due up representing the would-be go-ahead run. Reliever Reed Garrett was ready to enter.
But Mendoza stuck with his top starter, and Manaea rewarded him. He struck out Harper on three pitches.
“Once he got Harper there, I thought he had momentum back,” Mendoza said.
Manaea recorded his final six outs on just 13 pitches. Two of them — with two on and one out in the sixth — came on Nick Castellanos’ line drive to Iglesias for a double play.
“He didn't back down from contact. He didn't back away,” Mendoza said. “We know they are an aggressive lineup, and they showed it right away. They were attacking him but he kept getting the baseball. He had really good rhythm and he went right after [them].
“It was a different look today. Even though we’ve seen it the whole year, his mound presence, his demeanor — there was something different about him today. I'm just proud of him.”
The game was in doubt briefly in the eighth, when the Phillies rallied for a pair of runs against Phil Maton and Ryne Stanek. The crowd fell silent. Alonso encouraged fans to wake up again, repeatedly raising his glove arm, a gesture to which they responded by getting back on their feet and cheering. Stanek got Alec Bohm to fly out softly to centerfield.
“Playing on the road, the one thing that we did a really good job of was sucking the energy out of the stadiums,” Alonso said. “[In the] playoffs, no doubt there's a huge energy component to it, whether the crowd is in it or not into it.
“It wasn't necessarily a perfect inning, and there was kind of a lull. But it's like, listen, we're still up. Every pitch, every out matters. I was like, come on, like, it's OK, we're still in a good spot. The more loud and the more supportive that [the fans are] every pitch, the more loud that we get, it's a huge advantage to us.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
