MILWAUKEE — Sean Manaea was not dominant. He was better, though.
Manaea was better than his most recent start, which also came against the Brewers. He was significantly better than his first three career postseason starts.
He was better than opposing starter Frankie Montas, which looked to be enough until the Brewers swung their way back into the game against Phil Maton in the eighth.
Manaea was solid on Wednesday, which was encouraging but ultimately not enough as the Mets fell, 5-3, in Game 2 to the Brewers at an American Family Field that only exploded once against Manaea.
Manaea’s third pitch of the game was an 0-2, down-the-middle sinker that 20-year-old phenom Jackson Chourio drilled into the right-field seats.
The Brewers would only score once more off Manaea, who bounced back from the at-bat, from a dud and from a postseason history of duds.
The southpaw was on his way to his first postseason win, the Mets leading 3-2, after he allowed two runs on six hits with four strikeouts in five innings.
Manaea was at his best with runners on base and pitched his way out of a few jams, which was the kind of rebound he sorely needed.
In his most recent turn, Manaea — whose arms slot had dropped, leading his results to skyrocket — was bullied by the Brewers. He allowed six runs in 3 ²/₃ innings, including a first-inning Rhys Hoskins grand slam that seemed to end the game.
In his most recent playoff outings, Manaea was even worse. He had pitched three times in the postseason, twice with Oakland and once with the Padres, and came away with a 15.26 ERA.
A day earlier, Manaea said he simply wanted to view his outing as “just another game.” He did not pitch quite like that, his velocity reflecting the magnitude of the game.
A sinker that averaged 92.3 mph this season was all the way up to 93.9 mph. His sweeper climbed from 77.7 mph to 79 mph. He was amped, which translated into a mostly solid start.
After the Chourio homer, Manaea managed a strong Brewers lineup.
He only was touched again in the fifth, when Brice Turang sent a chopper down the third-base line that became a double. A groundout moved Turang to third before Blake Perkins scored him with a sac fly.
That would be all for Manaea, who gave way to a bullpen that was solid until Maton collapsed in the eighth.
Maton gave up a solo blast to Chourio to tie it, then a two-run shot to pinch hitter Garrett Mitchell that provided the final margin.
