Mets' Kodai Senga gets a few Fenway innings under his belt
The Mets' Kodai Senga pitches during the first inning of a game against the Red Sox on Friday in Boston. Credit: Michael Dwyer
BOSTON
Kodai Senga spent nearly an hour Friday afternoon surveying the Fenway Park landscape, his eyes sweeping wide from the Pesky Pole to the Green Monster. The place was virtually empty, aside from Senga and his interpreter, Hiro Fujiwara, as the two camped at the top step of the visitors’ dugout.
In a few hours, Senga would be standing on the mound, facing one of the sport’s most dangerous offenses in a place that’s been designated “America’s Most Beloved Ballpark.” But rarely, if ever, do those words come from the mouth of that night’s starting pitcher. A string of expletives tends to be the more common description, and Senga’s own baptism by fire was scheduled for 7:10 p.m., his 18th start as a major-leaguer.
This was the next phase in Senga’s adjustment process at a time when the Mets are desperately clinging to the fringes of playoff contention and regularly seek their daily affirmation from the mound. To date, Senga has been the most reliable source, the pitching staff’s only All-Star and arguably surpassing the rotation’s pair of three-time Cy Young Award winners as the ace of the rotation.
But Fenway didn’t beat Senga on Friday night. It was Mother Nature, as a steadily increasing rain halted the game as he tried to protect the Mets’ 4-3 lead. The Red Sox had dented Senga for three runs to that point, but the RBI groundout in the first inning was set up by Francisco Alvarez’s throwing error on Jarren Duran’s swipe of second base.
Senga mostly had himself to blame for No. 9 hitter Yu Chang scraping the Monster with a two-run double in the second inning. After getting two quick outs on four pitches, Senga surrendered a walk and single, then was up 0-and-2 to the .149-hitting Chang, who punched a rainbow to leftfield. Mark Canha maybe turned a bit too soon, because it grazed the low part of the scoreboard, perhaps a catchable ball.
“I first thought he was jammed and might be out,” Senga said through his interpreter. “Then on second thought, it got to me that we’re playing at Fenway, so I wasn’t sure what was going to happen.”
It was the worst of those scenarios. And two innings later, the tarp came on the field.
Senga’s final line: 3 1⁄3 innings, three hits, three runs, one walk and three strikeouts. He retired five straight after Chang’s Monster-aided double, including two strikeouts, and was ahead of Alex Verdugo 1-and-2 when the rain suspended play.
“He seemed to be getting better as the game went on,” manager Buck Showalter said.
Entering Friday, Senga’s numbers were impressive enough, with a 3.20 ERA that shrinks to 1.33 in his three previous road starts. His 122 strikeouts were the third-most by a Met in the first 17 starts, behind only Dwight Gooden (133) and Nolan Ryan (128). Also, Senga’s 11.48 K/9 rate was sixth in the majors among qualified starters.
Senga’s rookie success becomes even more remarkable when you factor in how quickly he’s adapted during his transition from Japan’s NPB to the majors. The hurdles were clearly marked. A heavier, slicker baseball here in the States. Pitching every fifth day rather than once a week, as he did in his 11 seasons for the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks.Senga appears to have cleared them all.
“I think so,” pitching coach Jeremy Hefner said before Friday’s game. “We tried, to the best of our ability, to communicate very well with him and he communicated back to us what he was feeling, what he needed, and it’s worked. It could have not worked out as well, right? But . . . we’ve got good outcomes from Kodai and hopefully we can keep it rolling.”
Senga’s first visit to cozy Fenway Park was sure to offer up another set of new and unique challenges. Plus, the claustrophobic feel is amplified by the closeness of the crowd, and when the Sox rally, an opposing pitcher can feel like an ant under a magnifying glass in the summer sun.
“This will be different,” Showalter said Friday afternoon. “But it’s part of the process for him, too. He needs to do this. I’m glad [his turn] fell here from that standpoint.”
Friday’s experience wasn’t going to be completely foreign to Senga. The same week the Mets announced their five-year, $75 million deal with him, the Red Sox unveiled the signing of slugging outfielder Masataka Yoshida, the other highly coveted Japanese star on the market last offseason, to a five-year, $90 million contract.
In Japan, Yoshida hit .412 (21-for-51) with four home runs and only three strikeouts against Senga. Yoshida’s firsthand scouting report figured to be a useful tool in the Sox dugout, but Senga held him hitless (0-for-2) Friday, whiffing Yoshida with the ghost fork in the third inning.
Shortly afterward, the rain intervened. So we’ll have to consider the grade for Senga’s Fenway test to be incomplete.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
