The second half of the Mets‘ 2025 season started on a high note, but the high didn’t last.
Left-hander Sean Manaea made his return to Citi Field on Friday night against the Cincinnati Reds, striking out the side in the first inning and walking off the mound as the ballpark speakers played “The Boys are Back in Town.” Juan Soto hit a home run off of left-hander Nick Lodolo in the bottom of the inning, and a packed crowd roared.
It wasn’t long before they started booing.
Right-hander Alex Carrillo gave up three home runs, two in the sixth inning, for a total of five earned runs. It put the Mets in a hole that they weren’t able to climb out of in an 8-4 loss.
With so many starters on restrictive pitch counts, the bullpen has to cover 4-5 innings every night. Mendoza said he wanted to give looks to Carrillo and Waddell, but it’s difficult to be able to give extended looks to pitchers like them at this time of year when the standings matter.
“We’re going to need length out of starters,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “Obviously, with Sean that’s where we’re at, but guys will step up. We feel comfortable with the guys that we’ve got back there. Today was one of those nights where Carrillo didn’t have it, but overall, we will continue to give opportunities to some of these guys. We know the main guys that you know been here the whole year, so we will continue to continue to evaluate the situation here as we’re trying to win baseball games.”
The problem is that the Mets aren’t winning games with the pitching staff the way it’s currently configured. It’s tough to fault the Mets for trying to protect their starting pitchers with pitch counts, and Manaea, much like Kodai Senga and Frankie Montas, is coming off of an injury. Tylor Megill and Paul Blackburn are on the injured list, Griffing Canning is out for the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon and Clay Holmes is limited to about 80-90 pitches every five days.
Needless to say, it’s not ideal. However, it’s fair to question the pitching management.
“That’s when you kind of put Sean [in there] today, and then kind of space those guys out a little bit knowing that you’re going to have to cover a lot of innings when they’re pitching,” Mendoza said. “But, I mean, Clay, he’s fully built up, but that’s what we’ve got right now.”
Manaea limited the Reds to only one run on four hits, walking one and striking out six in his second start of the season. Mendoza admitted that it would have been easier for him to manage had Manaea been able to go five innings, which puts pressure on the lefty to be more pitch-efficient.
“Yes, and I definitely didn’t do that today, which is most frustrating part,” Manaea said. “Threw some good sliders, but some not really competitive ones at all. I think just combination of that, and my fastball location was kind of iffy too. Those two pitches I definitely need, so I just need to tighten that up.”
Not wanting to deplete the bullpen with Holmes throwing Saturday, the Mets went to Carrillo in the top of the fifth. A 28-year-old who grew up in California before playing in the Mexican Leagues and the independent Frontier League, the Mets signed him after seeing him play in Venezuela in a winter league game last year.
His third big league outing and first at home proved to be overwhelming for him. Carrillo walked two batters, hit one and yanked some sliders, ending up in bad counts.
“First time being at home, it kind of happened,” Carrillo said. “I was trying to do a little too much. Fans are loud. It’s awesome, still a great experience to just be here and enjoy the time being here.”
All three home runs came off four-seam fastballs. Carrillo hit 98 in the fifth inning but couldn’t maintain his velocity or his movement on the pitch.
“Some misses with the ball out of the hand, and then when he came in, in the zone with the fastball, they didn’t miss,” Mendoza said. “They were all over the fastball there, we saw it with the way they hit it out of the ballpark.”
Mendoza made no move for a reliever after Carrillo gave up a third home run, finally replacing him with left-hander Brandon Waddell after he walked another batter. Waddell gave up a run before getting an out, and lost the strike zone with two outs in the eighth, hitting Freidl and walking the next three hitters.
Lodolo held them to two earned over seven innings in the win (7-6). The Mets rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth, but the rally fell short. Francisco Lindor popping up to strand the bases loaded.
“That’s when things started turning,” Lindor said. “But we ran out of outs.”
Luckily, the Mets think they’ll be able to lengthen out their starters. But if this game was a sign of what’s to come in the second half, the Mets (55-43) will be battling with teams like the Reds (51-47) for a Wild Card spot instead of making a push for a pennant.
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