If the Arizona Diamondbacks (76-72) fail to make the postseason, they might have the New York Mets (68-78) to thank for that. On Thursday, Kodai Senga (11-7, 2.95 ERA) had one of his best, if not his best outing as a Met as he threw six scoreless innings and struck out ten in New York’s 11-1 win. The Mets ended up taking three out of four from Arizona and they end the year going 6-1 on the season series (outscored them 47-16).

It was all about Senga from the very beginning as the Diamondbacks hitters struggled to see the ghost forkball in the shadows. After a two-out single by Tommy Pham in the first, the right-hander retired the next 13 hitters in a row, which included eight strikeouts.

The only inning where Senga ran into trouble came in the sixth when the D’Backs loaded the bases with two outs. However, a Christian Walker flyout would get him out of trouble. On the afternoon, Senga allowed two hits and walked two on 103 pitches (63 strikes) in the win.

The Mets gave Senga some run support in the third against Merrill Kelly (11-7, 3.45). They got a trio of walks from Daniel Vogelbach, Mark Vientos, and Rafael Ortega. On the next pitch, Brandon Nimmo ripped a two-run double down the right field line for the game’s first runs.

Then, in the fifth, the Mets would break the game open against Kelly. Nimmo picked up a single and Francisco Lindor drew the fourth walk of the game. Pete Alonso would make Kelly pay with an RBI double. Following the Alonso hit, DJ Stewart picked up a two-run single to extend the lead to five.

A two-run home run by Jeff McNeil would cap off the inning. McNeil’s ninth home run of the year and his third home run this month gave New York a 7-0 lead. Kelly went five innings, allowed seven runs on six hits, walked four, and struck out seven on 98 pitches (66 strikes) in the loss.

Francisco Álvarez would join the run-scoring party in the seventh when his double to left drove in Alonso. While only Nimmo had a multi-hit game, the offense took advantage of their run-scoring chances as a whole, with the team going 6-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

Even when Buck Showalter started bringing in some players off the bench, the scoring did not stop. Jonathan Araúz had a pinch-hit, three-run home run to put the Mets into double-digits in the run column (first career pinch-hit home run).

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Player Of The Game

The player of the game has to be Senga, and the Diamondbacks have to be thrilled they won’t see him again next year. In two starts against Arizona this year, he had 22 strikeouts to three walks in 14 innings of work while allowing just one solo home run. According to Baseball Savant, Senga had 15 called strikes or whiffs on his forkball (41% CSW), and he was able to get his fastball up to 98 miles-per-hour with impressive location.

Stat Of The Game

After his outing on Thursday, Senga now has five starts in which he has recorded ten or more strikeouts, with three of those outings coming in the last three weeks. Since the All-Star Break, Senga has 78 strikeouts in 11 starts, which is tied with Justin Steele for the fifth-most in the National League in that span.

On Deck

The Mets will continue their homestand on Friday night when they begin a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds (76-72). You can watch the game on SNY at 7:10 p.m. ET. LHP David Peterson (3-8, 5.34 ERA) will take the ball for the Mets against RHP Hunter Greene (4-6, 4.43) for the Reds.