Carlos Mendoza insisted that he wasn’t concerned, even after Sean Manaea walked four batters for a second consecutive outing.
But Manaea had harsher words to describe what has — at the very least — become a worrying trend.
The walks are “unacceptable,” he said.
Manaea entered Tuesday with a 13.1 walk percentage — the highest of his career — and added another four in the first three frames.
He doesn’t know “what is going on,” why the walks are happening, why fewer than 60 percent of his pitches crossed as strikes in his sixth start.
There have been times when Manaea has zoomed through lineups and limited runners.
He scattered three hits and one run while striking out three across five innings during the Mets’ 4-2 win against the Cubs at Citi Field, an otherwise strong outing.
But there are also times where the walks have dinged his ledger, and that has become frustrating for the left-hander.
“It works in bullpens and low-leverage situations,” Manaea said. “But as soon as somebody steps in there, kinda revert back to some of my old ways, and I just gotta figure that part out.”
Manaea struggled with his command in the opening frames.
He maneuvered around a walk to the second hitter of the game by inducing a double play, but Manaea walked two batters and allowed a single to load the bases in the second inning with one out.
Cubs catcher Miguel Amaya then lofted a sacrifice fly that drove in a run.
And that caused Manaea’s pitch count — at 41 through two frames — to keep rising.
“My pitches feel great, just not throwing them enough for strikes,” Manaea said. “That’s where I start getting into a lot of trouble. Thankfully, haven’t had, like, too much of a big inning yet, but that’s just asking for innings like that.”
Manaea was signed this offseason to become a key part of the Mets (15-14) rotation — with a goal to “eat up innings and go deep into ballgames,” he said.
That became even more critical when Kodai Senga began the season on the injured list, and while the walks aren’t as concerning as Adrian Houser’s 8.37 ERA, they capture exactly why the Mets’ bullpen has been so pivotal.
Consecutive eight-inning starts from Jose Quintana and Luis Severino gave Mendoza options behind Manaea, even with Edwin Diaz unavailable after appearing in back-to-back games.
He could use Sean Reid-Foley, Reed Garrett, Adam Ottavino and Jorge Lopez to secure the Mets’ first win of the series.
But it didn’t mask the latest sign that walks have started to become an issue for Manaea, even if he still found ways to escape most jams unscathed.
“It’s not a secret he’s fighting to find command of his pitches — all of them,” Mendoza said. “But he kept making pitches.”