At the business end of the season, the business of winning trumps all else. Egos, conventional wisdom, and tradition all must bow at the altar of the bottom line: Win or spend the long offseason contemplating the what-ifs. For the Mets, the game plan for Tuesday night’s game against the San Diego Padres was to start Clay Holmes, piggybackSean Manaea after, and then... go from there.
Unlike so many best-laid plans of the 2025 season, this one didn’t go awry as Holmes delivered four innings of two-run ball and Manaea followed with five innings of one-run ball in New York's 8-3 win.
“Thought it was great,” Holmes said. “We got a win, bullpen didn’t have to pitch, so always a good day. Offense showed up earthly and really took the pressure off of us, and we could just go and throw strikes and let the defense play. It was nice to just be able to cover the game, the both of us.”
The Mets' offense putting up a five-run first inning, including four runs with two outs, provided a big boost for the starter after he posted a 1-2-3 first inning, allowing him to pound the strike zone with conviction.
“Sinker felt good,” Holmes said. “For me, it was just kinda attacking and filling the strike zone up. I gave up the two homers on the four-seam and the cutter, probably my fifth and sixth pitches, but it was where the game was.
“I knew it was gonna be a piggyback situation, but you just never really know what that entails. So, once we got up, I was just being super aggressive and attacking and seeing how far I could go, really, until Mendy wanted to make the switch.”
Holmes came out after just four innings and 53 pitches, surrendering a pair of solo home runs, but that was less a reflection on the righty’s performance than the Padres lineup featuring a handful of lefty hitters they wanted Manaea to attack.
“We knew we wanted to play the matchups as much as possible,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “So if you’re trying to extend Clay [into the fifth], you’re looking at Clay facing three lefties in a row and then you get Manaea facing righties for the first time. Yeah, I was aggressive there, but I thought I needed to give those guys good matchups there.”
Holmes said he wasn’t aware of any “set plan” that he would be coming out after a certain batter.
“I was pitching until they said no, and I didn’t really know when that was,” he said. “I prepared as a normal start and basically was just going after the hitters as I would as if [it were a normal start], kinda letting them make those decisions.”
Mendoza added that when Holmes struck out Jackson Merrill swinging to end the fourth with a runner on base, that was going to be his last hitter, and if the inning continued, Manaea would have entered with two on and two out.
Manaea, who made 27 relief appearances back in 2023 and one piggyback start earlier this year, leaned on that experience to be ready when his number was called.
“Being adaptable is a huge asset for situations like this, and I lean on that,” he said. “It felt normal, like a normal routine, just took that and ran with it.”
Of course, he didn’t think he was going to pitch as long as he did – five innings and 73 pitches – but: “Whatever it takes to help this team win.”
The plan is for the duo to piggyback on Sunday against the Nationals, but there could be a tweak in the order of appearance
“We still gotta talk about whether we wanna go the same way,” Mendoza said, raising the possibility the roles might be reversed. “Because of the lineups, looking at the Nationals and some of their lefties at the top, we gotta have those discussions, but that’s the plan.”
For Holmes, he’s good with either role, as the mantra stays the same.
“We all want to win, and I think we all believe in each other,” he said about piggybacking after Manaea or vice versa next time around. “Really, I think it’s just the mentality of, whatever it takes, we’re willing to do. It may take some creativity, it may take some things that doesn't seem normal, I guess… I think the bottom line is we all want to win and whatever that takes at this point, I think we’re willing to do whatever.”
The win keeps the Mets in position for a National League Wild Card spot, and gives them two consecutive wins after a tough weekend series against Texas.
“It’s nice to get things rolling back in the way that we want to and the way we know we’re capable of,” Holmes said. “But at the same time, we know there’s still a lot of work to be done. We gotta take it a game at a time, and each day is a new day, and bring what you have that day.
“These last couple weeks, every day’s gotta be earned, and we know that.”
Manaea to keep fighting
Mendoza said he has noticed a difference in the left-hander, carrying over from his last start in Philadelphia, and that it was “good to see him out there and have that type of performance.”
“The aggressiveness, competing in the strike zone, his ability to elevate the fastball,” the manager said. “But I think there’s just conviction there with every pitch he makes. Expanding when he needs to, staying on the attack, there’s a lot to like there.”
The lefty entered the night with a 5.76 ERA and 1.240 WHIP over his first 50 innings of the year, surrendering 32 runs on 52 hits despite posting 64 strikeouts to 10 walks.
Manaea pinpointed his performance on Tuesday, the lone blemish a solo home run, to good fastball execution with some good sliders “for the most part” and came out of his outing feeling good.
"We all believe in him and what he can do," Holmes said. "And he's gonna be a big part of what we do down the stretch tonight. It was huge tonight to see him go out there and pound the strike zone and get the results that we believe he can."
This was longer than the lefty managed to go in six of his 11 outings since his season began out of the bullpen the day before the All-Star break. And that had been the story for Manaea this year: Pitching pretty well through the early innings and then seemingly out of nowhere hitting a wall around the fourth.
“We saw a pretty effective guy out of the gate and then he just ran out of gas, but today, we saw a guy I feel like he got better as the game went,” Mendoza said. “Mechanics, him feeling a lot better physically, and now he’s getting results.”
“Backed myself into a corner and had to start punching my way out,” the lefty said of his rough year. “ And I’ve kinda taken that mindset. I think that was a continuation of that last start.”
The frustration had been easy to spot.
“I think Sean’s frustrated,” president of baseball operations David Stearnssaid before Tuesday’s game. “I think we’re frustrated that we haven’t been able to get him over the hump. There are reasons I think that we can pinpoint. His fastball is a very effective pitch, but we gotta get up in the zone a little bit more than perhaps he has been able to thus far this year. Probably slightly different pitch mix...
“We’re gonna need Sean over these next 12 games, we’re gonna need Sean into the playoffs, hopefully… We’ve seen flashes of a really good pitcher, and it’s our job to help get there a little bit more consistently.”
The pair of good outings won’t be enough to see the southpaw drop his hands.
“Feels good, but I can’t let my guard down. I think that’s probably how I got in this situation in the first place,” he said. “Still got work to do, and it’s coming down to crunch time. Feel good, I’m just gonna keep doing that.”
