Manaea gives fans in Central Park an Amazin' surprise

This story was excerpted from Anthony DiComo’s Mets Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

SEATTLE -- Unlike many of his teammates, Sean Manaea did not go home over the All-Star break, preferring to stay in New York City with his mother and his fiancée, Talat. But that left Manaea with a predicament: he needed to find a way to keep his arm in shape while Citi Field was dormant.

One afternoon, Manaea left his Midtown apartment and set out for Central Park, initially searching for a wall where he could throw his weighted plyo balls. Manaea figured he might find one near a pack of softball fields. When he arrived, he stumbled upon something different: a group of players taking part in a league game.

A couple of them recognized Manaea and asked to take photos. Manaea responded with a request of his own.

“I asked them if they wanted to play catch,” Manaea said. “They were like, ‘Hell yeah.’”

For the next half hour or so, Manaea long tossed with members of the softball league, playing catch as he normally would between starts at Citi Field.

“He was throwing like 50 percent, 75 percent, and it was still coming hard,” Randy Santana, one of the softball players, said in a telephone interview.

“It felt different. I’ve never had that kind of experience, meeting a ballplayer. And the fact that he took … a moment to talk to the people that were around at that time, it was cool. He was a real great guy.”

What none of those present could have known was that the impromptu game of catch would soon give way to some of Manaea’s best work of the season. Over his last two starts, Manaea has thrown 14 shutout innings with 21 strikeouts, joining Tom Seaver and Dwight Gooden as the only pitchers in Mets history to deliver consecutive scoreless outings of at least seven innings with double-digit strikeouts.

Manaea’s turning point occurred during a July 25 game against the Braves at Citi Field, where Chris Sale held the Mets to two hits while pitching into the eighth. Watching from the dugout, Manaea noticed how effective Sale was as a 6-foot-6 left-hander with a low arm slot that creates a crossfire effect for opposing hitters. As a 6-foot-5 left-hander, Manaea spent his subsequent bullpen session working to lower his release point to generate a similar effect.

“He’s crept up a little bit over the last few years,” pitching coach Jeremy Hefner said of Manaea’s arm slot. “Sale’s way more cross-bodied than Sean is, but it’s something that he’s been able to internalize. And obviously, the results have been really good.”

Manaea’s next start, scheduled for Saturday in Seattle, will give him an opportunity to extend his scoreless-innings streak -- now 15 2/3 and counting -- past his career-best mark of 16 (which he’s accomplished twice). After that, he’ll return to Citi Field, where the Mets plan to invite Santana and other Central Park softball players to take in a game and reunite with Manaea.

“I felt like it was very nice of him just to take his time to come out and not only play catch with me and the other guys, but also to take time to talk to the other guys from the community, taking pictures with people,” Santana said. “It was a cool experience just to meet an MLB ballplayer in person.”

And as far as what it did to keep Manaea’s arm in shape? The left-hander compared his Central Park experience to cartoon character “Hey Arnold’s” best day ever.

“Ten out of 10,” Manaea said. “Would recommend it.”