Six hundred and thirty-nine days.
That’s how long it had been since Sean Manaea last stayed in a game for seven innings.
He’s gone six innings once and five several times since then, but hadn’t reached the seventh-inning stretch since Oct. 8, 2024, in an NLDS win over the Phillies.
That changed Thursday.
Despite giving up a leadoff home run, Manaea went a season-high seven innings in the Mets’ 7-3 win over the Royals, allowing three runs (two earned), walking just one and striking out six.
“He just wanted to be a horse out there,” Mets manager Andy Green said. “Filled up the strike zone. Anybody that gives up a homer on the first pitch and just goes back in there all day, you love that.
“I thought he was fantastic. It was huge for us. We’ve run through a ton of bullpen pieces to get seven strong; couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Poor length out of starters has been an Achilles’ heel for the Mets all season, and that hasn’t changed recently.
Christian Scott went just four innings against the Braves on July 3. Freddy Peralta went just 4 ²/₃ three days later in Atlanta. Even in the Mets win over the Royals on Wednesday, Scott went just five.
Manaea didn’t just break that trend. He made life 10 times easier for the bullpen. Between Huascar Brazobán and Devin Williams, Mets relievers tossed two scoreless innings to seal the win.
“We need length out of the rotation,” Green said. “Outings like that set you up to win tomorrow’s baseball game, and that’s what we’ve been missing to some degree: having multiple outings like those in a week.
“That’s huge for us going into tomorrow, to be able to rest the vast majority of our pen arms.”
The 34-year-old allowed a homer to Lane Thomas on the game’s first pitch, but settled in immediately after. Manaea retired the side in the second and third innings while inducing a Tyler Tolbert groundout — a rarity after he tied the MLB record Tuesday with 12 consecutive hits.
Manaea gave up a solo shot to Bobby Witt Jr. in the fourth but bounced back again by retiring the next five batters.
The lefty then maneuvered his way out of trouble in the seventh — a single, error, double and walk yielding just a single Royals run to keep the Mets’ lead intact, 6-3.
“It’s the culmination of a lot of hard work and people believing in me, me believing in myself,” Manaea said. “The whole squad coming together; it feels really cool to do something like that again.”
