Mets' offense quiet again, Sean Manaea's struggles continue in ugly 9-3 loss to Phillies

The Mets were defeated by the Philadelphia Phillies 9-3 on Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park.

New York has now lost four in a row. 

Here are some takeaways…

– Sean Manaea retired the first two batters of the night, but his recent struggles continued from there. He gave up a two-out two-run double to Nick Castellanos in the first, then served up back-to-back shots to Otto Kemp and Harrison Bader in the second. 

After heading into the tunnel to talk with Carlos Mendoza in between innings, Manaea was able to settle into a groove, retiring the next seven hitters he faced before issuing a leadoff walk to Kemp in the fifth. Philly pushed him into scoring position, but Manaea struck out Bryce Harper to strand him there. 

The southpaw finished with a line of four runs on five hits and a walk while striking out three over five innings. 

– The Mets' offensive struggles continued in their first meeting with Ranger Suárez this season. The southpaw held them hitless until Brandon Nimmo led off the fifth with a single up the middle, but that was quickly erased with a Starling Marte double play ball. 

Suárez allowed just four baserunners and struck out a career-high 12 batters in six shutout innings. 

– New York was finally able to get on the board when they got into the Phillies' bullpen. Mark Vientos led off the top of the seventh with a laser-beam solo shot to deep right off of David Robertson, snapping a 15-inning scoreless streak.

– Philly answered right back in the bottom half of the inning thanks to a Vientos error, though. Kyle Schwarber officially put this one to bed, lifting a monstrous three-run homer off of Justin Hagenman to the deepest part of the ballpark, making him the second player in franchise history with 50 in a season. 

– Jose Siri scored the Mets' second run in his first game back in five months. He laced a double high and deep off the right-center fence, and then came around two batters later on Juan Soto's RBI single — it was just Siri's second hit as a Met. 

Soto swiped third a few pitches later, giving him his first 30/30 season, and the fifth in franchise history. 

– Francisco Alvarez snapped a 0-for-12 skid with a double in the top of the ninth. It was just the young backstops second hit since returning from the injured list.  

– The Mets' lead for the third Wild Card spot is now down to 2.5 games with 17 to play. 

Game MVP: Ranger Suárez

The southpaw was absolutely spectacular, holding the Mets to just one hit while setting a new career-high in strikeouts (12). 

Highlights

What's next

The Mets send out Clay Holmes (11-7, 3.61 ERA) as they look to end the skid against Cristopher Sanchez (12-5, 2.60 ERA) on Wednesday at 6:45 p.m.

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