Trend of Short Starts Continues With Senga’s Latest Downfall
Through the Mets’ 1-9 skid, they’ve been unable to get over the hump of starters not going deep into games.
Their streak of David Peterson being the only pitcher to go six-plus innings reached 51 games on Friday. And, not too dissimilar from Sean Manaea earlier in the week, it came on a night when their starter was rolling early on.
Kodai Senga made it through just 4 1/3. It not only continued the Mets’ string of abbreviated starts, but it prolonged a slump for Senga that began shortly after he returned from the injured list.
Through four innings on Friday, Senga was effective and efficient. His pitch count was at 60 through four scoreless frames.
Even when things were going well, though, it wasn’t the most dominant version of Senga. He only had two strikeouts, both of the looking variety. He got just two whiffs all night — one with the cutter, one with the four-seam and none with his signature forkball.
The game sped up on Senga after a self-inflicted wound. He couldn’t cleanly field a soft tapper, letting Blake Perkins reach on an error. The very next pitch Senga threw was a cutter over the middle of the plate that Brice Turang blasted to right-center for a game-tying two-run homer.
Senga never rediscovered his rhythm after that. Two walks, sandwiched by catcher’s interference from Francisco Alvarez, loaded the bases.
Senga’s pitch count was still at a manageable 79, with 19 in the inning. If things were going better for the Mets — and perhaps if Senga had been more reliable lately — it’s a spot where Carlos Mendoza might have let his ace figure things out. But in a 2-2 game, Mendoza didn’t have that type of leash on Senga.
He pulled him right there.
After the game, Mendoza insisted that there were positive signs. But Senga himself was self-critical.
“The biggest reason is the wrong pitches at the wrong time, in the wrong location as well,” Senga told reporters through an interpreter.
Of the 20 four-seam fastballs Senga threw, just seven were in the strike zone. And hitters only swung at three of them. He threw 16 forkballs; hitters only swung at six of them, and they made contact all six times. With those pitches not working in tandem for Senga, he had to rely more on his cutter — a pitch that’s been hit for a .307 expected batting average and .472 xSLG this season.
Senga mixed in a total of seven pitch types as he tried to grind through the Brewers’ hitters. It mostly worked in the first four innings, but it fell apart on him in the fifth.
The Mets’ bullpen largely did its job on Friday. The big blow was Brooks Raley letting one of Senga’s runs score on an 0-2 hit by pitch, but otherwise, Raley combined with Ryne Stanek, Gregory Soto, and Tyler Rogers for 3 2/3 scoreless innings. They kept New York in it until the very last play, when Starling Marte was thrown out at the plate to end the game.
But once again, the bullpen had to do the grunt work. And that was despite the Mets having one of their best starting pitchers on the bump.
Assessing Senga’s season is a little tricky. Nobody would complain about the overall numbers — a 2.30 ERA in 18 starts — but that’s now four consecutive subpar outings. His ERA has risen nearly a run in that span, up from a dominant 1.39 before his IL stint.
A little regression was to be expected. But now the question is whether Mendoza’s optimism was justified. Is Senga on the right track to returning to his dominant form, or is he just going to keep turning in these abbreviated, shaky outings? He needs to rediscover the feel for his pitch mix — particularly his bread and butter in the fastball-forkball combo. Because, as Friday’s outing displayed, Senga’s success without those two pitches isn’t sustainable.
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