Mets waste Freddy Peralta, Sean Manaea’s most effective showings of season

With the Mets struggling to find their groove, they needed Freddy Peralta to step up and pitch like the ace he is in Sunday’s series finale against the Athletics.

Peralta did just that, delivering his longest and most encouraging outing of the season, but New York’s offense failed to back him up as the losing streak hit five.

The right-hander said postgame that he didn’t have his best stuff, but he was still good enough to hold the A’s to just one run on a Nick Kurtz homer in six innings of work.

“We made adjustments and got better as the game went on,” he said.

Peralta certainly did, as he retired six of the final seven batters he faced, working around a two out walk in the top of the fifth and then finishing his day with a scoreless sixth.

He walked three, gave up four hits, and struck out six.

“He was good,” Carlos Mendoza said. “They ran his pitch count up with foul balls and good at-bats, but still found a way to get us six innings -- except for the breaking ball on the homer, I thought he was very good.”

Sean Manaea was just as solid in relief of Peralta.

The lefty did a tremendous job keeping the team in the ballgame, perfectly cruising his way through the final three innings.

Manaea’s velocity remained down from last season, averaging just 89.3 mph on his fastball, but he continued to show that he can still be effective.

“Very good,” Mendoza said. “Attacked, threw strikes, fastball continues to have life. The delivery, the way he’s moving, I like the aggressiveness overall -- he not only gave us three innings, but he kept us there, he gave us a chance.”

The Mets will need more pitching performances like this as their offense looks to get back into a groove.