With less than two weeks to go and a playoff spot in doubt, the Mets had seen enough of the middle-inning struggles of Clay Holmes and Sean Manaea. Two halves of a starting pitcher were stacked together, the club finally acknowledging it would not extract better versions of the pitchers and would instead attempt to maximize the pitchers they are right now.
If this were an announcement that it was time for the team to shift into gear, the offense heard it, too.
The piggybacking was effective and the bats even better in a thorough 8-3 beating of the Padres in front of 41,819 at Citi Field on Tuesday, when the Mets looked like they rarely have in the second half — like a playoff team.
“It’s nice to just get things rolling back in the way we want to,” said Holmes, whose Mets (78-73) have gone from an eight-game skid to winning two straight to remain 1 ¹/₂ games ahead of the Diamondbacks, who beat the Giants.
With Holmes (four innings of two-run ball) and Manaea (five one-run innings) combining to quiet a solid Padres lineup and spare the bullpen, the Mets got a peek at a tandem that could find its way into a postseason start.
In his previous 16 starts, Holmes had recorded just six outs past the fifth inning, which had put a large strain on the bullpen.
In Manaea’s 10 starts this season, he had recorded just two outs past the fifth inning.
When they were stitched together, though, the Mets bullpen received a rare night off.
“It may take some creativity,” Holmes said after allowing just three hits (two of them solo homers) with one walk in his four innings. “It may take some things that don’t seem normal I guess.
“The bottom line is we all want to win.”
- CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND METS STATS
Manaea was willing to embrace the creativity.
A $75 million arm who led the Mets through the second half and postseason last year, the left-hander has struggled for length and struggled for effectiveness since returning from the injured list in mid-July.
His days of trying to pitch seven or eight innings, at least this season, are over. But what if he can consistently take the ball for four or five innings and unleash everything he’s got?
“Being adaptable is a huge asset for situations like this,” said Manaea, who allowed a solo homer among four hits and no walks while striking out four. “Whatever it takes to help this team win.”
The Mets are planning to piggyback the two starters again Sunday against the Nationals, although the order — Manaea then Holmes — could be flipped.
The strategy narrows a rotation that had six starting pitchers and provides another avenue toward tackling opposing lineups in the second half of this month and perhaps next month.
For Holmes — a converted reliever — there was not much adapting in taking down four frames and being lifted.
For Manaea, a veteran who prides himself on eating innings and may have turned a corner with his final three, scoreless innings in Philadelphia in his prior outing, there is sacrifice involved.
“Kind of backed myself into a corner and had to punch my way out,” Manaea said about his season.
This experiment would go swimmingly if it can count on offensive contributions like this Tuesday’s.
The strength of the 2025 Mets is an attack that was the game’s best in August.
And yet for 11 consecutive games that included nine losses in which the club collapsed, the Mets had not exceeded five runs.
It took two innings against Michael King — an ace, albeit one building up from injury — for the club to beat that.
They bashed their way to seven runs before recording a sixth out, allowing them to roll to their first nonstressful victory in weeks.
The tone was set immediately: Six of the first seven Mets batters reached, the largest blows being Jeff McNeil tucking a double inside the first base line to score two and Brett Baty hammering a two-run blast.
“I think we were on the heater right from the start,” said Baty, who watched Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso drill homers in the second before Cedric Mullins’ dinger knocked out King in the fourth.
The damage done, the Mets lineup put up its feet and watched two arms — and not a third — go to work.
“It was great,” Holmes said. “We got a win. Bullpen didn’t have to pitch. It was a good day.”