Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
The Mets’ rotation has arguably been New York’s biggest fault to start the 2023 season, but Kodai Senga hoped to turn that around on Wednesday night with family in attendance at Citi Field. Facing the best lineup in baseball, Senga delivered for the Mets with six innings of one-run ball with a career-high 12 strikeouts.
With Senga’s parents and sister in attendance, the Japanese right-hander gave the Mets a much-needed scoreless first inning with two strikeouts. The 30-year-old followed with three strikeouts in a scoreless second inning and two more in the third. Senga’s first and only trouble came in the fourth inning when he gave up back-to-back doubles to Brandon Lowe and Isaac Paredes to give the Raqys a 1-0 lead. The rookie limited the damage by striking out the last two batters of the inning.
Senga tossed a 1-2-3 fifth inning before running into a little bit of trouble in the sixth. He walked two in the sixth inning, though he buckled down to get a pop-up and struck out Taylor Walls to end his masterful outing.
Final line: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 12 K, 104 pitches/65 strikes
The 12 strikeouts set a new Mets record by a Japanese pitcher, breaking the previous record of 10 held by Hisanori Takahashi, Hideo Nomo, Masato Yoshii, and Daisuke Matsuzaka. Senga also became only the 10th pitcher (1st this season) in the last six seasons to have at least 10 strikeouts and allow no more than one run in a start vs the Rays. The only other Met to do so was R.A. Dickey.
https://twitter.com/Mets/status/1659174499684605953
Senga now has a 3.77 ERA, 55 strikeouts (11.5 K/9), 26 walks (5.4 BB/9), and a 1.44 WHIP through his first eight major league starts. His 55 strikeouts trail only Nolan Ryan‘s 64 and Dwight Gooden‘s 59 by a Mets rookie pitcher in their first 8 games.
The right-hander had the ghost fork working on Wednesday, getting whiffs on 7 of 10 swings against the pitch. His fastball velo was also up to 98.3 mph, and his average fastball velocity was up slightly (0.6) to 96.5 mph.
If the Mets rotation is going to turn around this season, Senga will likely play a key role as he looks to settle into pitching in the majors.
The post Senga Strikes Out 12 Rays With Family at Citi Field first appeared on Metsmerized Online.
