NEW YORK – The changeup fell towards home plate. Bryce Harper’s eyes widened. A community held its breath. The game, the series and the wonderful seasons of two teams were teetering in the balance.

For Mets pitcher Sean Manaea, it was a particularly daring pitch selection given the circumstances. His club led by a few runs in the sixth inning of an eventual 7-2 victory in NLDS Game 3. Two Phillies were floating on base. There were no dropouts. The most imposing playoff performer in MLB history waited 60 feet away.

Both men knew that one bad pitch, one big swing, and the trajectory of this sparkling series would be rerouted.

Change depends on deception. Movement also helps, but for the change-of-pace offer to be successful, a pitcher must mimic the arm speed of a fastball. If the pitch works, the batter mistakenly reads a heater from the hand and begins to roll forward prematurely, his swing crossing the zone well before the baseball.

But there are plenty of risks involved. An inanimate changeup is essentially a batting practice fastball, the type sluggers like Harper turn into souvenirs. That’s largely why the Phillies’ first baseman, a left-handed swinger, saw just five first-pitch changes from left-handed pitchers in the regular season. Wrong hands tend to attack Harper with a barrage of fastballs and sliders.

Manaea threw just one left-on-left changeup after the All-Star break this year. Coincidentally, that was also against Harper.

Before this wave of traffic, Manaea was cruising. A few hard hit balls, but nothing scary. A pair of solo home runs from Jesse Winker and Pete Alonso had given the Mets a solid 2-0 lead. Phillies hitters, struggling to adapt to the southpaw’s helter-skelter arm angle, managed just two hits through five innings.

But a pair of walks by Manaea early in the sixth raised the stakes.

That’s because facing the Samoan left-hander was Harper, the embodiment of October Clutch, owner of the highest playoff OPS in MLB history. Mets pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, understanding the moment, bounced out of the dugout for what would prove to be a crucial mound visit.

Two days earlier, Harper had reminded the baseball world of his postseason bona fides for the umpteenth time in his storied career. The Mets were the unfortunate victims when Harper’s defibrillating two-run moonshot in Game 2 propelled the Phillies to an unforgettable victory that tied the series.

As Hefner, Manaea and catcher Francisco Alvarez conferred, their mouths covered, heads nodding intensely, their target chasing home plate. Harper re-donned his bright red batting gloves a few times before reaching down to smooth out a clump of dirt in the left-handed batter’s box. Half a minute later, Hefner left, making his contribution and sharing some critical advice: Manaea would give Harper a first pitch change.

The Mets returned to their positions. Harper dug his cleats into the manicured clay. An enthusiastic crowd stood up. Manaea, cheeks red from exertion, glistened with sweat under the stadium lights.

He took a deep breath and prepared himself for battle.

This wasn’t the first time these two faced off in October.

Before reviving his career with the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets, Manaea was a disappointing stopgap option for the 2022 San Diego Padres. In Game 4 of that year’s NLCS in Philadelphia, Manaea was called up for a 6- 4 Protect Padres lead. Instead, he was bombed into oblivion. The Phillies hit him for five runs in just an inning and a third. Harper landed the knockout blow, a go-ahead RBI double on a zipless sinker.

After Tuesday’s game, Manaea called that day “a low point.”

But the silver lining of failure is the opportunity for change, and Manaea used that dreary night in Philly to turn things around. He immediately emailed Driveline, the high-tech private pitching company, asking for help. It was the first step on his journey back to dominance. That winter led to an encouraging 2023 with San Francisco, during which he pitched more than 115 solid innings.

But this year, in his first season with New York, Manaea has emerged as the top pitcher for the sport’s greatest traveling circus. He changed his release point and pitch mix mid-season, with great success. The sheer wildness of the 2024 Mets has somewhat overshadowed Manaea’s brilliant second half, but over his last 20 starts, the southpaw posted a 3.05 ERA in 121 innings. He will opt out of his contract this winter to become a free agent and get a well-deserved payday.

All that was far from Manaea’s thoughts on Monday. Especially when Harper, who had his sights set on shooting a baseball in the Long Island Sound, swung and missed on Manaea’s first pitch change.

Hit one.

At that point, neither the at bat nor the game was won. But that change changed the look of the showdown and with it the inning and the match.

“That throw changed the entire at bat,” Alvarez, the catcher, told Yahoo Sports after the game. Hefner, the pitching coach, confirmed that the trio had agreed on the plan of attack during the mound visit.

By substituting Harper, Manaea threw a wrench into his opponent’s approach. Harper suddenly had to think about three pitches instead of two. That discomfort and indecision bubbled to the surface. Harper whiffed on Manaea’s next two offerings, both sweeping the board.

Strike two. Strike three.

The next batter, Nick Castellanos, lined into a double play to end the inning and the threat. Manaea returned to pitch a scoreless seventh. He returned for the eighth but was removed after allowing a leadoff infield single to Edmundo Sosa. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza trudged slowly to the mound. Citi Field, which was enjoying its first playoff game in October, stood up. Manaea, who ended the evening with a sparkling line – 7 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 6 K – tipped his cap to the adoring crowd.

“The ups and downs and the hardships, that’s what makes games like this so important,” said a grateful Manaea after the match. “It’s part of the work I’ve been able to do – not just myself, but the whole team. Everyone I’ve worked with has put so much time and effort into it. It is an incredible feeling to achieve such results.”

Manaea said he got no extra pleasure from avenging his 2022 performance against the Phillies. The opponent was less important to him than the results, less important than the journey. He’s gone through so many changes that he didn’t even see his previous playoff game with Harper. It wasn’t a relevant data point.

“The thing is, I’m not the same pitcher I was back then,” he said.

On Wednesday, Manaea will watch from the dugout as his Mets teammates try to close out the series against Philadelphia. A win will send this blue-and-orange parade to the franchise’s first NLCS since 2015 and give Manaea, its star rising with each sparkling start, even more opportunities for change and change.