Sean Manaea struggles again as Mets fall to Cardinals, 3-1

The New York Mets lost 3-1 to the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. Sean Manaea didn’t make it out of the 3rd inning, and the offense never had enough to bail him out.

Jorge Polanco gave New York the lead before the game was 4 batters old, launching a solo shot to right field for his 2nd homer of the spring. That was the last time the Mets were in front.

Sean Manaea Gets Burned in the 1st

Masyn Winn led off the bottom of the 1st with a walk. Alec Burleson struck out. Then Nelson Velázquez turned on a fly ball and put it over the right-center wall, sending both runners home and flipping the score to 2-1 Cardinals. Nolan Gorman followed with a triple to right field off Brett Baty, though he was stranded when Jordan Walker struck out and Yohel Pozo flied out to end the inning.

The 2nd inning was clean — New York went 3 up, 3 down — but Manaea ran into more trouble in the 3rd. Tyrone Taylor led off with a double to right, moved to 3rd on a Ronny Mauricio groundout, and was stranded when Marcus Semien popped out and Polanco struck out swinging. In the bottom half, Gorman doubled again and scored on a Yohel Pozo single to left to make it 3-1. Manaea was pulled mid-inning, exiting with a final line of 2.2 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR. He drops to 0-2 this spring.

Francisco Alvarez went 0-for-3 with 3 strikeouts. Luis Robert Jr. singled sharply in the 4th and Baty drew a walk to put 2 on with 1 out, but Alvarez struck out swinging and Mike Tauchman flied out to strand them both. 2 runners, 2 chances, 0 runs.

The bullpen kept it quiet. Craig Kimbrel, Luke Weaver, and Tobias Myers combined for 5 innings, allowing 1 hit and 1 walk with 3 strikeouts. Myers threw 3 innings and gave up nothing.

The offense’s best chance came in the 8th. Jacob Reimer singled to right, JT Schwartz drew a walk, Vladi Gomez struck out swinging, and Matt Rudick walked to load the bases with 2 outs. Ben Rortvedt struck out swinging to end it. Ryan Clifford struck out in the 7th and grounded out to end the 9th.

Don’t read too much into Manaea’s spring lines — the stuff will be evaluated when the regular season starts. What to watch: whether he can get through 5 innings cleanly in his next outing, and whether Alvarez can stop chasing breaking balls in the dirt.