Mets' long innings vs. Athletics lead to short Kodai Senga start
Seemingly lost in the Mets’ 17-6 laugher over the Oakland A’s on Friday night was the performance of Kodai Senga.
The much-hyped pitcher from Japan had his worst start with New York, unable to get out of the fifth inning and pick up a surefire third win of the season. But looking past the numbers, it’s clear that the environment and the game itself took him out of his own rhythm.
“I wasn’t able to pitch my own game,” Senga said through the team’s interpreter after the game. “Which dragged on from the other side and let that bring me down a little bit.”
Senga went just 4.2 innings on 96 pitches, a season-high, giving up four runs, seven hits and four walks while striking out seven batters. The 30-year-old had trouble getting 1-2-3 innings and those four walks pushed his pitch count up, and ultimately for the team to pull him.
But manager Buck Showalter believes there were some other factors to Senga’s less-than-ideal start.
“The weather and a lot of different things going on,” he said. “I know he was frustrated with his command but it got to a point where I didn’t like it. I gave him that last hitter. He had a lot of long innings and I feel like it affected him.”
Those long innings are normally a good thing, as the Mets walked a franchise record 17 times, including 12 in the first five innings, and 13 runs. But that led to Senga sitting in the dugout and getting cold.
Showalter explained that Senga is used to moving around in between innings and when they’re at Citi Field he’ll usually throw in the cages in the clubhouse. However, in the Oakland Coliseum, Senga had to warm up in the bullpen area along the left-field wall between innings.
It was even captured on SNY.
Even so, Senga doesn’t place blame on anyone other than himself for not being able to adapt to his environment and the game itself.
“I think [the long innings] played a factor to some degree and a new ballpark I never pitched in before,” Senga explained. “Even still, it's up to me to prepare. Because the game went like that I needed to concentrate harder than usual, which I wasn’t able to do.”
Senga says he’ll be prepared next time he pitches in Oakland, but aside from Friday’s start he’s been one, if not the, best pitcher for the Mets in this early season.
Going into Friday’s start, Senga was 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA. He gave up just six hits, six walks and two runs before his latest outing.
Prior to Friday’s game, Showalter said that they are planning to give the rotation an extra day rest on this 10-game road trip. That likely puts Senga’s next start to take place in San Francisco for next weekend’s series.
