Kodai Senga's brutal short start sends Mets to NLCS Game 1 loss to Dodgers
Mets pitcher Kodai Senga reacts in the first inning during Game 1 of the NLCS against the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Sunday. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
LOS ANGELES — Kodai Senga had considered this possibility, a wide-awake nightmare in the biggest game of the season. He described a day before “a tension inside myself,” a special kind of pressure to perform that overrode any positive feelings about being on the mound. His hesitation to return in the most important month after such a long absence stemmed from a fear of coming up small when the Mets needed him most and had other options.
And then all that became reality Sunday night in a 9-0 loss to the Dodgers.
Called on by the Mets to start Game 1 of the best-of-seven NL Championship Series, his second postseason appearance after getting into one game the entire regular season, Senga had nothing, putting his team at an immediate disadvantage from which it never recovered.
The Mets hoped to get nine outs — a full three innings — from Senga, whose injury-ravaged season meant he was not ready to make a full, normal start. It got less than half of that.
Across 1 1/3 innings, Senga allowed three runs, two hits and four walks. He threw 30 pitches, only 10 of which were strikes. He mixed in a wild pitch and a pitch-clock violation. He forced the Mets to get another pitcher warmed up in the first inning and insert that pitcher in the second.
Senga was the first in a series of unfortunate events on the night for the Mets, who in addition to doing little well also had nothing go their way. Dodgers righthander Jack Flaherty tossed seven scoreless innings (two hits). David Peterson ended his unblemished postseason by giving up three runs in 2 1/3 innings. Jesse Winker’s baserunning blunder ran the Mets out of their best scoring opportunity.
It all began, though, with Senga, who walked three batters in a row in the bottom of the first. Max Muncy’s two-run single started the scoring. Shohei Ohtani added an RBI single in the second.
Both teams knew entering the game that Senga would be limited (after he threw two innings against the Phillies the weekend before). The Dodgers, of course, didn’t have a choice in who they faced. The Mets could have selected anybody to start, including Sean Manaea, who will go in Game 2 on Monday, but went with Senga in part to keep him on his normal routine.
Even though Senga had been hampered by shoulder, triceps and calf injuries, the Mets liked him in these games because they view him as their best pitcher. They are better off getting something, their thinking went, from the righthander than nothing.
“He's going to go,” Muncy said before the game, “as long as we let him go.”
Los Angeles didn’t let him go very far at all, and after two innings the Mets were fortunate to trail by only three runs, with the Dodgers aiding greatly in limiting the damage.
After Senga walked three consecutive batters to load the bases, Will Smith swung at the first pitch and flied out. After Senga walked Gavin Lux to open the bottom of the second, Tommy Edman for some reason sacrifice bunted. And after Reed Garrett entered, Ohtani was caught stealing second after sliding off the base.
That was the first time Ohtani was caught stealing since July 22. He had been successful in 36 consecutive attempts.
Flaherty, meanwhile, cruised. The Mets didn’t have a baserunner until the fourth, when Francisco Lindor walked, and didn’t have a hit until the fifth, when Winker singled.
After Jose Iglesias subsequently singled, Winker got caught between second and third, stopping twice and getting tagged out about two steps from the bag. The Mets had consecutive hits to open the inning, which ended two pitches later.
The Mets will try to rebound with Manaea, who during the regular season was their most reliable starter. He faced the Dodgers in April in a start (five innings, two runs) that was typical of his early-season self: too many walks, too many pitches, not that long, ultimately not really ugly.
In the months since, especially after changing the angle from which he delivers the ball, Manaea has more reliably pitched deeper into games. With that has come more confidence, which he said is among the biggest changes since Los Angeles last saw him.
“I would say it definitely helped, but [the confidence is] always just kind of there,” Manaea said. “But you kind of have to go out there and prove it, too, for yourself and everybody else. But, I mean, you can only be that way for a little bit. You actually have to go do the things. And slowly but surely I feel I've been doing that. Feel like I'm in a good spot right now.”
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.
