Mets' Kodai Senga rights ship after shaky start, coasts to win over Marlins in MLB debut

MIAMI — In pulling himself back from the brink of a big mess, what Kodai Senga needed first wasn’t the command of his fastball or the intense movement of his splitter or even the help of his defense. What he sought, amid major nerves at the start of his first major-league game Sunday, was a steady lower half.

“My legs,” Senga said through an interpreter, “felt like a ghost.”

He was able to joke after his dazzling success in the Mets’ 5-1 win over the Marlins, but there was a moment early when all of the above was at risk of disappearing. The first four Miami batters had reached base, two via walk, one run already was in and the bases were loaded with nobody out. Senga already had thrown 23 pitches.

His first time with a new team in front of a new fan base in a new country after signing a five-year, $75 million contract in December to come over from Japan was going so poorly that manager Buck Showalter had a reliever, Stephen Nogosek, standing on the mound and holding a ball in the bullpen, ready to get warmed up quickly if another batter reached base.

With some help from those around him, Senga never let it get that far. Pitching coach Jermey Hefner made a mound visit. Shortstop Francisco Lindor offered words of encouragement. Marlins first baseman Yuli Gurriel swung and missed at a key 1-and-1 pitch that was outside the strike zone, allowing Senga to get ahead in the count, which he hadn’t done much before that.

“It was a gradual thing, step by step, I got more and more used to the moment I was in,” Senga said.

He got his first out when Gurriel swung and missed at a splitter for strike three, his bat flying through foul territory past third base. The next batter, Jesus Sanchez, whiffed on a full-count version of the same pitch. When Jon Berti smacked a hard line drive to right, Starling Marte made a running grab, ending the inning with the Mets’ lead intact.

Whew. Senga could relax. His legs came back. He waited for Marte at the entrance to the dugout to thank him for the play, the same way he did for Jeff McNeil after the second baseman started an inning-ending double play in the second.

“That Marte catch was big,” he said. “Off the bat it was hard-hit and I thought it might drop, but he ended up catching it.”

Showalter said: “The thing I caught was the emotion of a couple plays behind him where he kind of got out of that stoic look. You could tell how much the competitive part of it meant to him.”

Then Senga, a 30-year-old righthander, turned into a different, dominant pitcher. He retired 15 of his final 17 batters and made it through 5 1⁄3 innings with eight strikeouts — all on the splitter, his signature pitch. The Marlins totaled one run, three hits and three walks.

After throwing 36 pitches in the first, Senga had full frames of 10, seven, 10 and 19 pitches.

That, Showalter said, was “the resiliency that he’s known for.”

“What showed different than maybe a 24-year-old rookie is his ability to settle the waters and pitch into the sixth inning,” Hefner said.

The key for Senga was his splitter, also known as a forkball or his “ghost fork,” so named because it moves so much and so suddenly that it seems to vanish. He threw 26 of them against the Marlins, inducing nine swings-and-misses. His other 62 pitches — fastballs, sliders, cutters — combined for one whiff.

“There were some tough swings on that pitch,” Miami manager Skip Schumaker said. “Guys just couldn’t pick it up. It was pretty late movement.”

Tommy Pham, who went 3-for-4 with three RBIs, said: “I had a centerfield view, and based off their swings, it was disgusting. The ball was just falling off the table.”

That completed a good weekend for the Mets, who grabbed three wins in a season-opening four-game series with the Marlins despite delaying Justin Verlander’s first start indefinitely because of a strained muscle near his right armpit.

Senga’s next game will be at Citi Field on Saturday against the Marlins.

“Obviously, [this first game was] something I had looked forward to, but the first inning was that,” he said. “The biggest thing for me today was despite that first inning, I was able to get out of it.”

By Tim Healey

timothy.healey@newsday.com@timbhealey

Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.