NEW YORK (AP) — Mets pitcher Kodai Senga will start Game 1 of the National League Championship Series against Jack Flaherty and the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday, continuing his comeback from injuries that have limited him to two starts this year.
New York manager Carlos Mendoza said “everybody should be available and ready to go” in his bullpen.
“So it’s Senga and then we’ll see after that,” he said Saturday before the Mets held a light workout at Citi Field prior to leaving for Los Angeles.
Flaherty joined the Dodgers from Detroit at the July 30 trade deadline. The right-hander struggled in Game 2 of the NL Division Series against the San Diego Padres, giving up four earned runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Senga returned from a long layoff in the Division Series, appearing on a major league mound for the first time since late July. He started Game 1 against the Philadelphia Phillies on Oct. 5 and gave up one run over two innings in the Mets’ 6-2 win.
Senga missed the first 102 games this season due to a right shoulder capsule strain and lasted 5 1/3 innings in his lone regular-season start July 26, when he limited the Atlanta Braves to two runs before straining his left calf.
Mendoza said the next day that if the Mets “get to see (Senga) pitch again this year, that means we’re in a good spot.” The 31-year-old right-hander made just one brief minor league rehab appearance before returning in Philadelphia.
“There’s not a number I have in mind,” Senga said through an interpreter when asked about his potential pitch limit Saturday. “I’m going until they take the ball away from me and I’m going to go at 100% until then.”
Going with Senga in Game 1 — for however long — allows the Mets to maximize rest for the remainder of their rotation at this point.
Sean Manaea, who will start Game 2 on Monday at Dodger Stadium on five days’ rest, has thrown a career-high 193 2/3 innings while Luis Severino has tossed 194 innings, his most since 2018. David Peterson threw a career-high 121 regular-season innings and has emerged as a pivotal bullpen piece with 6 1/3 scoreless innings in the playoffs.
“From the beginning, we wanted to put our guys in what we felt was the best position to have success considering where they’re at physically,” Mendoza said. “For Senga, we wanted to keep it as close as possible to his routine. And then with some of the other guys, like I said, it’s because of where they’re at physically and who will benefit from an extra day.”
Counting the appearance against the Phillies, Senga has made 28 of his 31 big league starts on at least five days of rest.
Senga might not be the only unexpected contributor for the Cinderella Mets in the NLCS. Jeff McNeil, whose regular season ended Sept. 6 because of a broken right wrist sustained when he was hit by a pitch, went 1 for 4 with a walk while playing second base Friday night for the Scottsdale Scorpions of the Arizona Fall League.
Mendoza said McNeil was scheduled to play right field Saturday for Scottsdale and there was “a good chance he’ll be on the roster” for the NLCS as long as he remains healthy.
“Kind of hit me, I think it was yesterday, when we were going through a lot of these conversations and I went back to when I announced that Senga was done for the regular season and then when Jeff gets hit and we get the results, it’s broke and he’s done,” Mendoza said. “And here we were yesterday, having those conversations. It was a good feeling — pretty incredible. I’m just glad that they are healthy now.”
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A previous version of this story corrected the number of big league starts Senga has made in his career.
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