Mets defense fails Sean Manea, fall to Blue Jays in series-opener

Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News on Jun 29, 2026

Published in Baseball

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The more things change for the New York Mets, the more things stay the same — even in a different country.

Left-hander Sean Manaea looked solid over 5 2/3 innings Monday night, but the defense behind him turned a leadoff hit by George Springer into a little league home run. One run was all the difference in a 2-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.

The Mets (35-50) have lost nine of their last 10 games and gone 1-3 since firing manager Carlos Mendoza and replacing him with farm director Andy Green. This series marked the start of a difficult, seven-game road trip through Toronto and Atlanta. It started on a bad note.

Springer hit a line drive to left field that Juan Soto pulled up short of, helplessly stabbing at the ball with his glove as it dropped in front of him. The ball bounced back to the wall where center fielder A.J. Ewing fielded it but then dropped it, sending Soto chasing after it while Springer rounded third. Soto turned to throw and didn’t even bother seeing Springer halfway between third base and home plate.

Ewing was charged with an error. He was later caught stealing to end the top of the seventh. The Mets weren’t exceptionally sloppy, but they weren’t especially crisp either. Even the small mistakes seem to escalate into bigger-than-necessary plays.

Francisco Lindor led off the seventh with his third home run of the season off right-hander Trey Yesavage to cut the Blue Jays’ lead in half. Yesavage, a breakout star of the World Series for the reigning American League champs, retired Jared Young, hit Ewing with a pitch, and retired Mark Vientos before being replaced by Mason Fluharty. The lefty didn’t have to do much to end the inning. His catcher did the heavy lifting, firing to second to get Ewing.

Yesavage limited the Mets to only Lindor’s home run, giving up three hits and striking out three in the win (4-3).

Manaea (1-3) put two on with two outs after Springe scored, but got out of the inning without further damage. He walked the leadoff hitter in the second, but struck out Yohendrick Piñango and got Myles Straw to ground into a double play to end the inning. From there, he retired the next six hitters he faced before giving up a leadoff double in the fifth.

The runner would come around to score on a fly ball later in the inning, but Manaea continued to get outs. Toronto (40-45) scored twice on three hits against the veteran lefty in just his fourth start of the season, walking twice and striking out four times. Manaea finally looks like a viable starter again, but at this point, he may just be eating innings until the end of the season.

Jays closer Louis Varland put two on in the ninth with one out, but struck out Vientos and Ronny Mauricio to end the inning and convert the save (17). The bottom of the order is flat-out failing to produce for the Mets.

In his first game in Toronto since Game 7 of the World Series, Mets third baseman Bo Bichette went 0 for 4. A sellout crowd of 41,634 gave him an extended ovation in the first inning, and he tipped his cap to the fans who have watched him since he was a teenager.

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