Sunday night could have been a long one at Citi Field for Kodai Senga.
Just two pitches into his start, Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani took him deep to put his Mets in an immediate hole against the defending champions, who ended their season in the NLCS seven months ago.
The next batter, Mookie Betts, reached on an error by third baseman Mark Vientos, and Freddie Freeman followed it up with a double to put men on third with nobody out.
It all could have come undone in a blink, but Senga got Will Smith to fly out to center, where Tyrone Taylor then threw Betts out at home for a double play. He then got Teoscar Hernandez looking on a slider to limit the damage to just that single run.
It ended up being the only blemish of his night, as he went 5.1 innings, yielding five hits with four walks to go with five strikeouts on a night his ghost forkball did not have its usual bite.
“I just thought he kept making pitches,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We made some big plays. That play in the first that Tyrone Taylor threw to home plate was huge. [Senga] kept battling. He used the cutter even though I don’t think e had that pitch, either. But he found a way, and for him to go back out there for the sixth and get us one out there, it was important.
“That goes to show you how good he is on a night that he’s not at his best against a lineup like that. He’s able to kept us in the game, make pitches when he needed, and gave us a chance.”
Pete Alonso rewarded Senga’s grit by ending a career-worst drought of 71-straight plate appearances without a home run by depositing a two-run shot over the left-center-field wall to give the Mets a lead it would not relinquish to take the rubber game of the three-game set 3-1.
“I used my whole repertoire,” Senga said. “Used every pitch in all sorts of situations, and I was able to get through it.”
This is not anything particularly new for Senga, who owns a 1.240 WHIP through 10 starts this season. Before dealing with eight Dodgers base-runners after Ohtani’s lead-off blast, he dealt with eight men on (five hits, three walks) over six innings in his last start against the Boston Red Sox, in which he gave up three runs and lost.
In two successive starts against the Arizona Diamondbacks on May 1 and 7, he allowed a combined eight walks in 10 innings.
Despite all that, he continues to limit the damage, as he leads the National League with a 1.46 ERA in 55.2 innings this season after injuries limited him to just 5.1 last year.
