A Kodai Moment

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With the way the Mets bats have been, Kodai Senga probably figured he couldn’t afford to give up a single run. 

So he didn’t. The ghost fork practitioner went seven innings, the first Met starter to stay in the game that long, only throwing 79 pitches, to get the win in an 8-0 Mets victory. 

The no-hitter was gone after the first batter - Lawrence Butler doubled on a bloop that Brandon Nimmo dove for and missed. Senga didn’t panic - he struck out the dangerous Brent Rooker, got Tyler Soderstrom to fly out to left field, and coaxed Shea Langeliers, who owns the Mets, into an innocent 6-3 put-out to end the 1st. The bottom of the 2nd began with Francisco Lindor’s third error of the year - all three occurring while Senga was on the mound. But the defense came to Senga’s rescue when the next batter, Jacob Wilson, hit a rocket to third baseman Brett Baty, who threw a dart to Luisangel Acuña at second while on his knees, who threw to a stretched out Pete Alonso at first to complete the 5-4-3 double play.

A Seth Brown single kept the inning going, but Gio Urshela flew out to Juan Soto who made a nice running catch in right field to end any threat. The third inning was probably Senga’s worst, if you had to pick one for some reason. Max Muncy and Lawrence Butler both had hard hit singles to put runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out. So what did Senga do? He got Rooker to ground into a double play. With a runner on third, all Soderstrom could do was fly out to center. Three innings, three times the A’s got their leadoff hitter on base. Zero runs. 

Senga worked around a walk in the 4th and had his first 1-2-3 inning in the 5th. In the 6th he walked Tyler Soderstrom but otherwise got three fly ball outs with no damage done. After a lengthy top of the 7th, Senga showed no signs of rust, recording another 1-2-3 inning, striking out his last two batters of the day. He must have known it was the end of the line, because the last pitch he threw was a 98 mph heater on the black to catch Gio Urshela looking. A.J. Minter and Max Kranick took care of business in the 8th and 9th respectively to give the Mets their third shutout of the young season.

It turned out that the Mets did score more than a couple of runs. Eventually. Luis Severino was pumped to face the team that didn’t want him back. Because he couldn’t throw fastballs in the vicinity of David Stearns’ face without getting into legal trouble, Sevy threw 98 mph heaters when he usually threw 95.5 mph against his former teammates instead. He didn’t allow a run until two outs in the 6th, when Luis Torrens, who has been great so far this year, singled to right, scoring Pete Alonso, who walked to start the inning. Poor jacked up Sevy ended up being the losing pitcher despite allowing just that one run. The game began to fully swing the Mets’ way in the top of the 7th. Lindor doubled home Acuña from first base. After intentionally walking Juan Soto, Noah Murdock got Alonso to strike out looking, but then he walked both Nimmo and Mark Vientos, forcing in another run. The 8th was strange. Tyrone Taylor, who made a baserunning mistake the previous frame, tripled, then scored on a Jose LeClerc balk to make it 4-0 New York. The 9th inning, against Jason Alexander, was the most fun. Nimmo singled. Vientos had himself a hard hit double, scoring Nimmo. Torrens continued his great day by hitting a ground rule double after the center fielder Seth Brown lost the ball in the sun and ran away to avoid getting knocked in the noggin. That scored Vientos. Torrens scored when Brett Baty tripled, hitting an 80 mph change-up in the strike zone at a 113.4 mph exit velocity. Baty would score off of a Jacob Wilson error. And that’s how a decent lead became a blowout in the books. 

The Mets don’t have the best record in baseball, but they’re the only team to not lose two in a row. I’ll certainly take it. 

As Gary Cohen referred to the A’s pitcher Jason Alexander as “George Costanza”, a fan in the stands yelled “SERENITY NOW!”

There was some odd drama going on between A’s rookie shortstop Jacob Wilson and Juan Soto. Soto hit a grounder to Wilson, who shuffled his feet, shuffled his feet some more, then shuffled his feet even more, before finally throwing to first base. The delay called to attention the fact that Soto wasn’t running remotely hard to first. Wilson got the best of Soto again his next time up, when he smoked a 112.4 mph exit velo liner that Wilson juggled but caught. The baseball Gods got Wilson back though. He committed an error in the 9th and cartoonishly fell down attempting to swing at a Max Kranick pitch in the bottom half. 

You can’t help but notice Juan Soto gets the benefit of the doubt from home plate umpires for virtually every close pitch, to the chagrin of the opposition. This is definitely not a complaint.

The Mets were 0 for their last 27 with runners on base before Torrens’ RBI single in the 6th.

Gary Cohen revealed that the starting pitchers had dinner together recently and told each other they had to last longer in games. Senga was the least likely to follow through on it, but there he was, still out there in the 7th.

Jose Siri (leg) was still using crutches  yesterday, so an IL trip is still on the table.

Jeff McNeil went 1 for 3 with two strikeouts in his rehab start at St. Lucie, playing six innings at second base. His teammate, Francisco Alvarez, went 0 for 4 with a walk and a strikeout, but he did throw out a would-be base stealer and went the distance as the catcher. Both are off to Syracuse. 

The Triple-A Syracuse Mets lost to the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs (Phillies affiliate) 2-0 in Game 1 of a doubleheader. Jose Ureña was the losing pitcher, even though in 3.1 innings he just gave up one earned run, walking and striking out two. 38 of his 65 pitches were strikes. Mike Puma tweeted that he might get called up by the Mets on Friday to serve as the sixth starter to give Kodai Senga extra rest.

The SMets got their revenge in Game 2, winning 7-0. Joey Meneses continues to mash, going 3 for 4. José Azocar, who might be Jose Siri’s replacement, went 2 for 3 with three runs scored. Jon Singleton went 2 for 4 with a double. Brandon Waddell, another sixth starter candidate, pitched five scoreless innings, allowing just one hit, walking two and striking out four. Anthony Gose came in for two thirds of an inning and maintained his 0.00 ERA.  

The Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies defeated the Hartford Yard Goats (Rockies) 2-1. 2023 3rd round pick Nolan McLean was the winning pitcher, going five innings, allowing one earned run, walking three but striking out six. 47 of his 81 pitches were for strikes. The kid’s got some action in his arsenal.

The High-A Brooklyn Cyclones beat up on the Hudson Valley Renegades (Yankees) 8-1 to finish their first homestand of the season. Shortstop Kevin Villaviciendo went 3 for 3 on the day. Jacob Reimer and Carson Benge each went 2 for 4. Chris Suero hit a ball a long way for a home run. 2024 13th round pick R.J. Gordon pitched 3.1 scoreless innings, walking one, striking out three. 

The Low-A St. Lucie Mets lost to the Lakeland Flying Tigers in a pitchers duel, 2-1. Drew Gilbert went 2 for 4 with a double. Jesus Baez also went 2 for 4 on the afternoon, with one of the hits having a 107.6 exit velo. Edgar Moreta got the start, allowing one earned run in three innings, walking none and striking out five.

On this day in 1999, John Franco picked up his 400th save. He became just the second closer to get to the four hundo mark.

The Metsies travel to Minnesota to battle the Twins tonight. First pitch is at 7:40 pm eastern. Clay Holmes (1-1, 4.30 ERA) will square off against Joe Ryan (1-1, 2.65 ERA). The game will be on SNY.