Senga Continues Positive Start to Season

Kodai Senga backed up a strong spring training in his first start of the season against the St. Louis Cardinals last Tuesday. He gave the Mets length; the velocity was up, plenty of positive signs. Senga showcased a lot of those same things in his second start against the San Francisco Giants on Sunday. He completed 5 2/3 innings, allowing two earned runs on five hits and two hits over 88 pitches.

He got off to a quick start, striking out five of the first seven batters he faced. Through four innings, the Giants had just one hit against Senga. They failed to get anyone into scoring position at that point, something that continued into the fifth inning thanks to some great defense. Jerar Encarnacion hit a long fly off the wall in left field, as he looked to stretch it into a double. Jared Young had it angled perfectly and made a good throw, making it a close play at second. Encarnacion was out, and Senga escaped trouble in the fifth.

The Giants found some holes against him in the sixth. Patrick Bailey and Rafael Devers each hit singles that weren’t hit particularly hard (62.2 mph and 75.6 mph), but they were still hits. Senga gave up two runs and was unable to finish the inning, exiting with a 2-1 deficit.

As the game wore on, the velocity on his four-seam fastball dropped. Early on, it peaked at around 98 mph. In the fifth inning, it was closer to 94-95 mph. Is that uncommon? No, probably not. But in his final inning against the Cardinals earlier in the week, he was sitting around 97-98 mph towards the end, which is where he was sitting around the end of spring training. For context, Senga averaged around 94.7 mph on his four-seamer in 2025 after averaging around 95.8 mph in 2024 and 95.7 in 2023.

Nonetheless, Senga has impressed so far. After Freddy Peralta and Nolan McLean, fans weren’t really sure what to expect from that rotation. But to their credit, Clay Holmes and Senga have provided really strong outings through the first week and a half. “I think it’s a really strong group. As long as we stay healthy and stay out on the mound, we can be a stabilizing force for the team. That goes for everybody, and myself. I don’t want to be the one lagging behind; I want to be up there with them. I think we’re a great group,” Senga said.

As a team, the Mets’ 2.53 ERA ranks third in all of baseball. Like last year, the pitching has performed very well to begin the year. They will hope to continue that against the Arizona Diamondbacks starting Tuesday.

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