Mets' Sean Manaea sharp in first start of season, but club falls to Atlanta

One step forward. One step back.

Two sentences. Six small words that very well might encapsulate the story of the 2026 Mets season.

A day that began with optimism that perhaps the Mets had begun to right their ship ended with feelings all too common during the first 11 weeks of their season:

Disappointment. And the lament of opportunity squandered.

“Couldn’t come up with a big hit,” Carlos Mendoza said after the Mets dropped a 3-1 decision to NL East-leading Atlanta on Saturday afternoon at Citi Field in front of 38,269.

The loss halted the Mets’ winning streak at two games. They fell to 31-39, 15 games behind Atlanta (46-24). The loss, coupled with San Diego’s 9-3 win over Baltimore, left the Mets 5½ games behind the Padres for the last National League wild-card berth (and with six teams between them).

For the Mets, the lone positive was the performance of Sean Manaea (1-2), who held Atlanta to two runs in six innings. He allowed four hits, struck out six and lowered his ERA from 5.02 to 4.78.

“It feels really good,” Manaea said.

The 34-year-old lefty entered his first start of the season — and first since the Mets’ 2025 season-ending 4-0 loss to the Marlins on Sept. 28 — with a 1-1 record in 14 appearances spanning 43 innings.

During his pregame media availability, Mendoza was unequivocal that the decision to have Manaea start the game was wholly performance-based.

“He earned it. He continues to put himself in position where days like today, it was an easy call for us,” Mendoza said of Manaea, who in his previous six appearances was 1-1 with a 3.05 ERA and struck out 21 in 20 2⁄3 innings.

“I’ve been saying it, not only with Sean but guys like [David] Peterson, guys like Kodai Senga. In order for us to get to where we want, to be able to turn this thing around, we need those guys, and today’s a perfect opportunity for Sean to go out there, do his thing and give us a chance to win a baseball game.”

Which he did.

Manaea threw 33 sweepers and 31 four-seamers and mixed in 10 cutters, eight sinkers and two changeups to keep Atlanta’s hitters off-balance.

“Found a grip that works,” Manaea said of the sweeper. “It felt really good. Trusted it. I wasn’t trying to manipulate it too much.”

The one Atlanta batter he could not solve was rightfielder Eli White, who finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs.

White put the Mets in a 1-0 hole in the second inning when he laced a one-out double over a diving MJ Melendez that drove in Matt Olson. In his second at-bat, White lofted Manaea’s 1-and-0 cutter 390 feet over the leftfield wall to make it 2-0.

Manaea did his job. The culprit in this loss, as it has been so often, was a lethargic offense.

The Mets had six hits off Atlanta starter Martin Perez (5-3) and relievers Dylan Lee, Didier Fuentes, Robert Suarez and Raisel Iglesias. Bo Bichette and Juan Soto each went 2-for-4.

“We just got to do our thing here,” Mendoza said. “Get better at-bats against good pitching at times.”

The Mets’ best chance to change the trajectory of the game came in the sixth.

After Carson Benge grounded out, Bichette’s double to left ended Perez’s outing and Soto popped to centerfielder Michael Harris II on the first pitch he saw from Lee. Vientos drilled an RBI single to left to cut Atlanta’s lead in half.

Harris gave Atlanta its second two-run cushion of the game by slugging a two-out solo homer off Austin Warren in the eighth to make it 3-1.

It appeared as if Soto led off the ninth with a home run, but it was overturned after an Atlanta challenge.

After the game, Mendoza said the umpiring crew of Alan Porter, Roberto Ortiz, Jim Wolf and John Bacon told him they did not see the ball go over the wall and also ruled out fan interference. It looked as if the ball might have hit the fingertips of a fan reaching over the fence.

Instead of recording his 16th homer of the year and bringing the Mets to within one run, Soto was awarded a double and stranded at second to end the game.