‘Mistakes’ Mets, Sean Manaea have to ‘clean up’ after last start against Brewers

MILWAUKEE — Mets starter Sean Manaea would like to forget his last, and only, start against the Brewers last Friday. In Game 2 of the Wild Card Series at American Family Field in Milwaukee, he’ll get an opportunity to.

“They’re just overall a really good club,” Manaea told reporters. “I made a few mistakes last game, but I’m just improving from there.”

Manaea wasn’t able to carry his dominance over the last two-plus months against Milwaukee last time. He allowed six runs (five earned), the most he’s allowed since Jul. 19, in 3 2/3 innings, earning his first loss since Aug. 10 against the Mariners.

Much of what worked against Manaea was the Brewers’ running game. Milwaukee stole three bases against the 6-foot-5 left-hander in his last start against them — they stole six bases total all game.

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It’s been an issue the Mets have had against the Brewers all season. Milwaukee has stolen 17-of-17 bases against New York, but the Mets seemed to have figured something out as they’ve prevented stolen bases against the Brewers in their last two matchups, including their 8-4 win on Tuesday.

Mets Game 1 starter Luis Severino demonstrated a good example of how New York is working to thwart one of Milwaukee’s biggest strengths.

“Yesterday, Sevy did a very good job,” Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez said. “He changed the tempo, did a quick pitch, and then a regular move… So I really think it’s just like change the tempo and try to be a little bit quicker to home plate.”

Mets catchers will need to be a little quicker too. They’ve allowed the eighth-most stolen bases in MLB (138) with a caught-stealing percentage (20.2%) in the bottom third of the league in the regular season.

Alvarez has thrown out 14 of 80 (18%) would-be base runners.

The Mets’ success improved with the addition of catcher Luis Torrens, whom they acquired from the Yankees for cash on May 31. Torrens has caught 15-of-28 runners stealing (46%) with the Mets. Without him, the team’s caught-stealing percentage drops to 17.8%, which would be the third-worst in MLB.