Senga’s Ghost Fork Bamboozles Pirates

Heading into 2025, the Mets rotation was dismissed as a bunch of projects–guys who were considered maybe number two-starters at best. Kodai Senga, who missed nearly all of the 2024 regular season, was at the heart of all this doubt. But where are these critics now? I’ll admit, when Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea went under the knife, I was skeptical as well. But the Mets’ pitching staff, specifically Senga, has exceeded expectations. Senga hasn’t just looked like a legitimate ace. He’s pitched like the best starter in the National League.

Senga tossed five and two-thirds innings of one-run ball on Tuesday, and his ERA went up. That’s how dominant he’s been.

Like so many of his starts this season, he had to navigate a ton of traffic on the basepaths. In the second, third, fourth, and fifth innings, he fought at least one runner in scoring position, but escaped each time without allowing a run.

“I think Alvy gave the right signs at the right time and I was able to respond with those pitches, for the most part,” Senga said about his ability to work his way out of jams.

Senga came back out for the sixth on 81 pitches, which was a no-brainer, but he looked a bit gassed. The inning started with confusion, as Pete Alonso wasn’t on the field, and after a delay, the umpiring crew hit Senga with a pitch clock violation. Still, he was able to retire Joey Bart and Ke’Bryan Hayes (who already had two hits off him) on a pop-out and long flyout. After an Alexander Canario single, Carlos Mendoza visited the mound with translator Hiro Fujiwara but left Senga in.

Senga then hung a forkball to Jared Triolo, who grounded it sharply to Mark Vientos—only for the ball to slip through the webbing of his glove. That was it for him. Mendoza called for Reed Garrett, who walked two straight but limited the damage to just one run.

Though the sixth ended with the Mets and Pirates locked in a 1-1 tie, Brett Baty would eventually break the tie with a go-ahead solo home run. Edwin Díaz closed the door in the ninth, earning his 125th save as a Met.

Senga finished with 5 2/3 innings pitched, allowing six hits, two walks, and one earned run while striking out seven. His ERA is now 1.22 and ranks second in the majors behind Max Fried.

Senga’s success depends on his pitch usage (like all pitchers), but mainly his ghost fork. Opponents have hit just .087 against it, which has helped Senga to an offspeed run value of 4, good for the 95th percentile. However, batters have compensated a bit by hitting .292 against his four-seamer and .348 against the cutter.

On Tuesday, Senga threw 102 pitches, 41 of which were forkballs. Hitters still haven’t figured out how to distinguish his forkball from his four-seamer out of the hand. He’s getting absurd swings and misses on forkballs in the dirt, and frozen batters on fastballs at the bottom of the zone. A prime example of this came in the very first at-bat of the game: Senga fired a 1-1 fastball perfectly placed at the bottom of the zone to Adam Frazier, which he took. Two pitches later, he dropped a forkball in the same tunnel. Frazier flailed at it as it bounced, one of six strikeouts Senga recorded on the ghost fork, each one leaving the hitter utterly fooled.

Senga is the anchor of a Mets rotation that has wildly exceeded expectations and been nothing short of brilliant. Senga himself has posted video-game numbers and has been a downright cheat code on the mound. There’s no need to get ahead of ourselves here, but we may have an early NL Cy Young frontrunner, and his name is Kodai Senga.

The post Senga’s Ghost Fork Bamboozles Pirates appeared first on Metsmerized Online.