For the fifth straight outing, Mets starter Sean Manaea struggled in the sixth inning, allowing five straight hits without recording an out in the frame on Tuesday night against the Miami Marlins.

While it’s been an on-going problem for the left-hander this season, his latest violation was rather surprising considering he had been perfect for the first five innings, retiring the first 15 batters in a row.

Not only that, but Manaea was also setting the Marlins down quickly and efficiently, having only thrown 52 pitches before going back out for the sixth. Nevertheless, in the blink of an eye, Miami figured out Manaea and had five straight hits in a matter of nine pitches.

“That one’s hard to even wrap your head around,” said interim manager Andy Green. “You’re perfect through five innings and barely over 50 pitches and I don’t know how many pitches he threw in the sixth, but it was seven, eight, nine pitches and five hits after being efficient… It happened fast and that’s, I’m sure, tough for him to have such a good outing going and it kinda being soiled from nine pitches.”

Manaea still got the win after the Mets’ bullpen shut the door en route to a 7-5 victory where the offense came out of the gates hot against Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara, but his continued struggles in the sixth are a major concern -- not just because it keeps happening, but because Manaea seems to have no idea how to make it stop.

“I don’t know. They put some good swings on the ball, I fell behind a couple guys. They just adjusted,” he said on what went wrong this time.

What’s worse, it’s even begun to creep into the veteran’s mind when he’s on the mound.

“Yeah I mean it’s been the last five, six games, it’s kinda hard not to think about,” Manaea said. “I mean at this point it’s just mental. I don’t really know what’s going on, I feel like I’m making some good pitches but one day I’ll figure it out.”

New York is hoping the 34-year-old can figure it out quickly and look more like he did through the first five innings where he "got ahead" and "threw strikes."

Still, it’s odd that things can go from so good to so bad in a matter of minutes for him.

In fact, Manaea went as far as to call the sixth inning his “kryptonite” -- not exactly what the Mets want to hear from one of their starting pitchers who they’re hoping can be an asset for them next season.

“It sucks. The sixth inning has been a kryptonite to me. I don’t really know what’s going on, but it is what it is,” the left-hander said.

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