On a night the Mets needed him to be at his best, Kodai Senga struggled again.
The right-hander was picked up nicely by his offense and bullpen, but he had to battle through traffic in each of his four innings of work during Monday’s 13-3 win over the division-leading Phillies at Citi Field.
New York found themselves trailing almost immediately, as Trea Turner led off the game with a triple after a missed strike three, and he scored a few pitches later on an RBI groundout.
Senga stranded a pair in the second, but Philly was able to strike again in the top of the third, as Alec Bohm dropped a two out two-run single just in front of Juan Soto in right to make it a three-run ballgame.
The first two batters reached against him in the fourth, but he did a nice job retiring Turner, Kyle Schwarber, and Bryce Harper in order to escape without further damage.
Senga returned to the mound with a clean slate after the Mets’ offense rallied to even things up, but he was quickly pulled after hitting the leadoff man.
Newly recalled left-hander Jose Castillo entered and rolled a double play ball to close his final line with the three runs allowed on six hits and three walks while striking out four over four innings of work.
“It was a struggle for him,” Carlos Mendoza said. “A lot of noncompetitive pitches, a lot of balls coming out of the hand — just not being able to get ahead, and when you’re falling behind hitters especially against a lineup like that it’s going to be hard to find success.”
This is just latest in a string of shaky showings from Senga since returning from the injured list.
The 32-year-old is still yet to earn in a victory over his eight starts since then.
Senga also hasn’t been able to complete six innings over that span, and he’s pitched to an ugly 5.40 ERA.
He explained the biggest difference in his eyes over the past few outings.
“The sensation of delivering power to the ball,” Senga said through a translator. “I’ve been lacking in that aspect a little bit of late — whether it's power or movement or anything along those lines near home plate where the batter sees it it's lacking just a little bit.
“That's why I'm getting the hitters off balance, but it's landing for a hit instead of going foul, those are the minor differences that I feel might be relating to the results on the field — despite that I’m still out there everyday trying to make it a winnable game for the team.”
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