For the second outing in a row, Kodai Senga had a home run hit off him in the first inning to put the Mets in an early hole.
Last Sunday, it was Shohei Ohtani of the reigning champion Dodgers.
On Saturday, it was Ezequiel Tovar of the historically bad Rockies and it was the first home run that came off Senga’s famous forkball.
Still, Senga didn’t waver.
After the home run, he went on to retire 17 straight batters, striking out seven while allowing two hits and two earned runs across 6 ¹/₃ innings for his sixth win of the season in the Mets’ 8-2 victory over Colorado.
“Ideally, I’d like to get through without giving up any runs,” Senga said through an interpreter after the game. “But I think it’s just a result of throwing the pitches where I know that they’re going to hit it, and it just happens to be that way. … I think the most important thing was that I was able to throw strikes to get ahead.”
It was the first time Senga allowed two or fewer hits in an outing of at least 6 ¹/₃ innings since August 19, 2023.
He also has allowed three earned runs or less in 28 consecutive starts, which is the fourth-longest such streak in Mets’ history.
“I thought he was amazing,” Brett Baty said. “I was saying out there that I just think his resilience this year has been incredible. He gave up a homer in the Dodgers start in the first inning, and then he gave up a homer today in the first inning. After that, came back out and pitched strikes and just mowed everybody down. It was cool.”
His consistency has earned him the third-best ERA in the league (1.60) behind the Royals’ Kris Bubic (1.45) and the Rangers’ Nathan Eovaldi (1.56).
But the righty isn’t concerned with that.
Rather, he is looking at the only other hiccup of his outing, which came in the seventh inning when he had a pitch-clock violation and gave up two walks and two singles. He ruled it was likely from fatigue.
“I don’t really think about my stats. There’s a lot more season. A lot more games left in the season. In terms of my innings pitched, give it a few days and I’m probably no longer on the leaderboard. So, we have a lot more left to do. I want to finish my outings on a strong note, unlike today. So, we have a lot of work to do and a lot of season.”
