PHILADELPHIA — Sean Manaea’s troubles surfaced at a different pocket of the game this time around.
But the end result was the same: a middling effort that a suddenly punchless Mets lineup and a bullpen that added some embarrassment could not overcome.
A subpar start, subpar bats and the dregs of the Mets relief corps conspired to drop a fourth straight game, 9-3 to the Phillies, as the division race has unofficially ended and the wild-card race is unwittingly heating up.
The Mets (76-69) entered play three games ahead of the Giants, whose game had not yet finished.
Manaea was knocked around in the early innings instead of the middle innings that had plagued him, digging a four-run deficit by the end of the second.
A four-run hole is more like a canyon for a Mets lineup that, thanks to number-inflating garbage time, has totaled 16 hits in three games and scored 15 combined runs in the past six games.
Carlos Mendoza & Co. will have difficult decisions to make regarding Manaea, who has a 7.71 ERA in his past seven starts after clawing through five innings in which he allowed four runs on five hits and a walk while striking out five.
Manaea already has seen Frankie Montas and Kodai Senga booted from a rotation that has six arms. His rotation spot — for the immediate present and for a theoretical first-round playoff series in which the starters would be boiled down for a best-of-three — is in question.
His issues with length — he has recorded two outs in the sixth inning through 11 starts — remain, needing 96 pitches to record 15 outs Tuesday.
But in a reversal, this time the lefty was touched up early before only allowing a walk in his final three frames.
The first two innings were damaging, though.
Perhaps Manaea was motivated to pound the strike zone in an attempt at greater efficiency, but Phillies batters pounced.
Nick Castellanos’ double drove in two in the first before Otto Kemp punished a middle-of-the-plate changeup and Harrison Bader blasted a sweeper for back-to-back home runs in the second.
Those would be the only Phillies runs until Kyle Schwarber launched a seventh-inning three-run homer off Justin Hagenman, who let up two more in the eighth in what became a party at Citizens Bank Park.
Manaea recovered, which is more than can be said for his team’s bats.
After Hunter Greene overpowered them on Sunday and Aaron Nola bewildered them on Monday, this time the Mets were helpless against Ranger Suárez.
Because of meaningless rallies in the eighth and ninth, the Mets finished with eight hits.
Just one of which came against Suárez during six dominant innings in which the lefty struck out 12 (including Juan Soto three times).
The lineup did not record a hit until Brandon Nimmo’s single to begin the fifth — which was followed by a double play from Starling Marte. Walks to Francisco Alvarez and Jeff McNeil created the closest thing to a rally as could be considered against Suárez, but Jose Siri was far too quick on a curveball for a frame-ending strikeout.
The Mets added runs in the seventh (a Mark Vientos homer) and eighth (RBI single from Soto) and ninth in a game that effectively had been over after two innings.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
