The 2025 Mets reversed a pattern of underwhelming play with a decisive middle-inning swing. Sean Manaea started strongly, mixing a sharper changeup, but faltered in the fifth and exited after a two-out Trea Turner single. Gregory Soto followed, issuing a wild pitch and a walk before Bryce Harper’s sinker produced a 2-0 Phillies lead. Jesus Luzardo held early but then hit Luis Torrens and collapsed in the bottom of the fifth, yielding a single to Francisco Lindor and an RBI single to Juan Soto while a misplay by Harrison Bader compounded the damage.
For openers (a tactic the Mets have tried, mostly to little effect), there was a Met starter looking good early and then winding up on the side of the road awaiting a tow: In this case it was Sean Manaea, who looked better than he had all year pitching aggressively and mixing in his mostly absent change to excellent effect, only to falter in the fifth, chased from the game by a two-out Trea Turner single.
Jesus Luzardo had bent a little in the early innings but not broken, holding the Mets at bay while making no secret of his pique at perceived enemies including Juan Soto and young home-plate umpire Willie Traynor. The bottom of the fifth, though, started off in a way that demanded the pique be self-directed: Ahead 0-2 on Luis Torrens, Luzardo gave the Mets a gift by hitting their catcher in the foot.
Luzardo then imploded, surrendering a single to Francisco Lindor, an RBI single to Soto (with Lindor scampering to third and Soto to second on an ill-advised throw in the vague vicinity of home by old friend Harrison Bader, and walking Starling Marte - or, as Luzardo saw it, striking out Marte on two consecutive four-seamers that ticked the strike zone to the satisfacti
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