PHOENIX – The most important start of the season for Sean Manaea was the one he saw alongside Chris Sale.
On Tuesday, Manaea continued his late-summer surge sparked by Sale’s example, pitching until the seventh inning in the Mets’ 8-3 series-opening win over the Diamondbacks.
Facing the top-scoring offense in the major leagues — and it’s been as hot as Tuesday’s 105 degrees in Phoenix — Manaea barely broke a sweat through the first six innings, striking out Arizona four times in order, not facing a batter when a runner was in scoring position and collecting 11 strikeouts on the night.
The Mets are 18-8 this season when Manaea starts. No team has won more games when a starter has been on the mound.
“He absolutely shone,” said Pete Alonso, who hit the first hit with a home run. “He really stepped up for us.”
Manaea was coming off a solid, if not particularly noteworthy, season when he saw Sale, probably the National League Cy Young Award favorite, pitch well against the Mets on July 25. The first-base dugout at Citi Field offered the perfect vantage point to watch the left-handed Sale throw, and Manaea took notes.
“Sean is an extremely hard worker and extremely curious,” pitching coach Jeremy Hefner said earlier this month. “He’s been a successful major leaguer, but how can we help him take the next step? Sometimes you watch someone pitch and you internalize some of those mechanics and it comes naturally to you. … It just felt right to him, and he tried it, and when he made the throw, it felt right, so we tried it.”
First, Manaea has lowered his release point to look more like Sale. He’s athletic enough to make that kind of change midseason, and his throwing technique has become quicker and more deceptive, with a more pronounced movement across his body.
Second, he simplified his repertoire, eliminating his cutter and his harder slider, limiting his changeup, and relying heavily on his sweeper and two- and four-seam fastballs. The fastballs in particular have worked better with the new pitch, and the sweeper has remained effective despite being used almost twice as often.
After his only bad start last month, a brief and relatively wild performance in Seattle, Manaea made another adjustment. He reintroduced his changeup, now with a revamped grip and a burgeoning confidence. He threw 17 changeups during a three-start streak that ended in Seattle. In the three starts since then, he has thrown 43.
“The move will become a real weapon,” said manager Carlos Mendoza.
Manaea now focuses on the grip between his thumb and middle finger when throwing the feel pitch; just as importantly, he has figured out what cues he needs to throw the ball where he wants it to go.
“When I throw it like my fastball, it just goes off (arm side),” Manaea said. “I have to throw it pretty hard to the glove side, which is a foreign concept to me. Trying to throw it to a right-handed hitter is a lot different than what I’m used to. But once I figure that out, I can just keep working on it every time I pitch.”
Since switching grips late last month, Manaea has had good results in his bullpen sessions, and now he’s seen those results translate to the field.
“I know a lot of teams try to pitch right-handed hitters against me,” he said. “That one pitch that looks like my fastball and just dies makes my fastball so much better because they have to respect that pitch. That definitely makes a big difference.”
With his pitch mix right where he wants it, Manaea has worked opposing hitters aggressively and shown a control over counts that he often lacked earlier in the season. He didn’t walk anyone on Tuesday, reaching a three-ball count just three times and throwing just six of his 103 pitches while trailing 2-0, 3-0 or 3-1.
“I just feel good,” Manaea said. “I have a lot of confidence in all my shots and I’m just attacking the guys.”
“If you’re ahead of your guys,” Hefner said, “of course you should increase your strikeout rate by a few points.”
Manaea has increased his strikeout rate by more than a few points. In his first 20 starts, he struck out 22.6 percent of opposing batters. He has increased that number by nearly 45 percent, to 32.7 percent. That number is actually a fluke: It’s Sales’ strikeout rate this season.
“You have to give him credit,” Mendoza said. “He’s worked so hard throughout his career to get to this position and it feels like he’s just getting better and better.”
(Photo: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)
