Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
When Kodai Senga first signed with the Mets, he was asked if there were any lineups around the league that he was especially looking forward to facing. While it didn’t take long for the Japanese-born to say the Phillies, it took nearly five months for that wish to bear fruit.
And, even though the version of the Phillies he faced didn’t include Bryce Harper or Rhys Hoskins, Tuesday’s performance showed that Senga meant business. In his 10th career start, Senga showed not just Philadelphia, but the entire league, what he was capable of.
Senga has taken Major League Baseball by storm with his “ghost forkball,” but the consistency—at least away from Citi Field—hasn’t been there thus far this season. On Tuesday, he found that consistency, as he accomplished a career first. Across seven scoreless innings, the right-hander struck out nine Phillies and allowed just one base runner—a Kody Clemens third inning single. Senga came into the game tied for fifth in the league with 31 walks on the season. He didn’t walk a single Phillie on Tuesday and retired the last 14 batters he faced, including back-to-back strikeouts of Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber. to end the top of the 7th.
Senga didn’t shy away from going after Phillies hitters. He relied heavily on his fastball and his forkball, which has become his signature strike-out pitch and Tuesday was arguably the best it has looked all season. According to Statcast, Senga’s 57.3% whiff rate on his forkball is the highest out of any pitch in the league.
As Mets play-by-play voice Gary Cohen mentioned on SNY’s broadcast, Senga threw 29 forkballs in total. 18 of those forkballs were swung at, four were fouled off and 12 were swung and missed at. In total, Senga threw 100 pitches (66 strikes) on Tuesday and got 22 whiffs.
As MMO’s own Michael Mayer pointed out, in 30 innings pitched at Citi Field this season, Senga has allowed 14 hits, four earned runs, 14 walks and 38 strikeouts, which is good enough for a 1.20 ERA. Now, his ERA on the season is 3.44, which is inflated by his poor numbers on the road. If Senga can figure it out away from Queens, the rest of the league will officially be put on notice. The defending National League champions were on Tuesday.
The Mets are now 14-0 when their starting pitcher goes at least six innings and own a 7-3 record in Senga starts this season.
