MIAMI -- In the eyes of Mets interim manager Andy Green, starter Sean Manaea only needed to step on the gas and trust his stuff to navigate the third time through the Marlins’ order on Tuesday.
He didn’t need a reinvention, but the troubles plagued him a little earlier in the Mets’ 7-5 win against the Marlins.
Entering Tuesday, batters were hitting .333 against Manaea the third time through the lineup, compared to .246 in the first and .231 in the second, with a .702 slugging percentage (.418 in the first, .397 in the second) and a 1.098 OPS (.731 in the first, .693 in the second). The left-hander has a 3.51 ERA with batters hitting .236/.296/.415 in innings 1-5, compared with a 7.68 ERA and a .329/.407/.594 slash line from the sixth inning on.
Manaea finished his first inning with only four pitches and carried a perfect game with four strikeouts into the sixth with 52 pitches thrown and a 7-0 lead. The 34-year-old finished by allowing four runs on four hits before the Mets pulled him in the sixth.
Jakob Marsee broke up the perfect game with a bloop single past third baseman Brett Baty before reaching second on a fielding error by Baty.
Manaea then gave up two consecutive doubles and another single before Otto Lopez drove in the third run for Miami. The Mets pulled Manaea for Jonathan Pintaro.
Francisco Lindor set the tone for the Mets on the first pitch he saw from Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara. Leading off the first, he took a 95.3 mph sinker in the bottom of the zone a Statcast-projected 405 feet to center field.
Lindor’s 17th homer of the season was also his 17th career leadoff blast as a Met, behind only Curtis Granderson and José Reyes, who are tied with 21.
In the top of the second, Francisco Alvarez singled before Lindor reached first after getting hit by a 90 mph cutter in the elbow area.
Juan Soto cleared the bases on another first-pitch sinker for a three-run homer, his 24th homer of the season.
New York continued to add on in the third, with Baty taking a 97.1 mph four-seamer deep to center field after a seven-pitch at-bat. He sent it a Statcast-projected 426 feet for his second-longest homer of the season.