Mets' Sean Manaea relishes the 'challenge' of facing the Dodgers

Mets starting pitcher Sean Manaea spoke to the media following his strong outing in the team's 4-2 loss against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night.

>The southpaw held his own against the defending back-to-back World Series champions, completing six innings and allowing just one earned run on six hits across 84 pitches.

>"It's everything you live for," Manaea explained postgame. "It's the big leagues, we want to pitch against the best. They're one of the best teams in the league, and have a bunch of superstar players. You're not going to survive (in MLB) long if you don't want to pitch against a team like this."

>Manaea held the Dodgers' cohort of four superstar players - Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, and Kyle Tucker - to just two extra-base hits, both of them doubles.

>Ohtani's double was as amazing as it was strange, with the lefty slugger using one hand and desperately poking at a sweeper moving away from him, hooking it down the right-field line and into the corner. Ohtani was thrown out trying to stretch the play into a triple thanks to a perfect relay from Carson Bengeand Francisco Lindor.

>"Ohtani is Ohtani. He's a pretty good player," Manaea chuckled as he reflected on the strange play. "That was a good pitch. It was crazy, the fact he even got to the ball...unbelievable."

>Manaea was efficient throughout his outing thanks to a heavy reliance on his four-seam fastball. The left-hander throws that pitch around 34 percent of the time on average, but against the Dodgers on Friday, he upped the ante with a 61 percent clip, over 70% of them being strikes.

>When asked if the uptick in usage was a conscious choice, Manaea responded "if I'm executing pitches from the get-go, it's my plan."

>Through two starts against the Dodgers during his time in Queens, Manaea has recorded a 2.45 ERA in 11 IP. He clearly appreciates the opportunity to do battle with the cream of the MLB crop.

>"Anytime we face those guys, it's always a challenge, and I love that stuff. They've definitely kicked my butt before, but it goes both ways, so [I have] a lot of respect for them," he concluded.