Mets’ Sean Manaea continues to pick up where he left off

There was good news tucked inside of the Mets’ ugly post-All-Star break opener. 

The final score at Citi Field — Reds 8, Mets 4 — wasn’t part of it, thanks to questionable bullpen usage by manager Carlos Mendoza and even worse performance from the low-leverage arms, Alex Carrillo and Brandon Waddell, he called upon. 

But early on, there was a lot to like for the Mets from Sean Manaea.

Similar to his return Sunday against the Royals, he looked like the Manaea of last year. 

Over four innings, he was mostly dominant, allowing just an Austin Hays opposite-field homer in the fourth.

He struck out six, walked two and threw 69 pitches in his first start of the season.

Most importantly, Manaea feels healthy. 

“Arm feels good. Body feels good,” said the southpaw, who had missed the season’s first 96 games due to oblique and elbow injuries. “That’s all you can ask for.” 

The plan entering the contest was to limit him to around 70 pitches after he threw 65 in relief Sunday.

As a result, the lone issue in his outing was that Manaea wasn’t as pitch-efficient as he would’ve liked. 

“Yes, and I definitely didn’t do that today, which is the most frustrating part about today,” Manaea said. “I threw some good sliders, but there were some not really competitive ones as well.” 

Otherwise, it’s hard to complain about his performance.

Manaea said he could’ve gone deeper into the game, but the Mets have a plan and they’re sticking to it.

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Manaea is too important to lose again.

So they’re playing it safe for now, bringing him along slowly.

Mendoza compared it to a pitcher in spring training. 

“I want to be out there as long as possible, but I kind of understand the situation that we’re in,” Manaea said. “So I [don’t want to go] too crazy. Just do what I can with the pitches allotted.”