{"id":738276,"date":"2026-06-29T04:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/738276\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T04:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:27:15","slug":"kodai-senga-looks-sharp-as-a-mets-reliever-despite-allowing-decisive-homer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/738276\/","title":{"rendered":"Kodai Senga looks sharp as a Mets reliever despite allowing decisive homer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kodai Senga took a step back into the bullpen and took a step forward in performance.<\/p>\n

In his first major league outing as a reliever, Senga was much sharper than he had looked as a failed starter, even if the home run he served up to Kyle Schwarber became the difference in a 5-4 loss to the Phillies<\/a> at Citi Field on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was really good today,\u201d interim manager Andy Green said after Senga allowed two runs on four hits and one walk while striking out four in five innings.<\/p>\n

The 2023 All-Star and 2024-26 mystery had fallen out of the rotation after seven games in which he owned a 10.08 ERA.<\/p>\n

But Senga \u2014 who was needed on an afternoon the Mets essentially threw a bullpen game while four of their relievers were not available because of recent workload \u2014 entered in the fifth without complaint, saying the Mets afforded him plenty of time to warm up for a job that \u201cI haven\u2019t done\u201d often.<\/p>\n

\"NewKodai Senga throws a pitch during the Mets\u2019 June 28 loss to the Phillies. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n

He had no issues with Trea Turner, Schwarber and Bryce Harper and looked as if he had rediscovered his forkball.<\/p>\n

He encountered trouble in the sixth, walking Alec Bohm before a Brandon Marsh double, but Senga used forkballs to strike out J.T. Realmuto and Derek Hill, sandwiched between a Bryson Stott groundout.<\/p>\n

Senga remained for the seventh, when he faced the top of the Phillies order for a second time because Green had no other reliever to turn to. <\/p>\n

Senga got ahead of Schwarber 1-2 before missing down the middle with a fastball that was demolished for a game-swinging two-run homer.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Senga acknowledged that he could have chosen a different pitch or at least hit his spot better, trying to throw the fastball up and out of the zone.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou get to 1-2 on one of the best hitters on the planet, you want to locate better,\u201d Green said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to take anything away from his outing \u2014 he came out of the bullpen, he gave five really strong innings.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Mets, who are using four starting pitchers and have an off-day Thursday that delays the need for a fifth, very much could use a reemergence from Senga, but that hope has dwindled.<\/p>\n

Senga said his role is ultimately \u201cup to me\u201d because his performance will dictate how he is used.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I can\u2019t compete and be in the zone \u2026 then I don\u2019t deserve a spot in the rotation,\u201d Senga said through interpreter Hiro Fujiwara. \u201cBut on the flip side, if I am able to compete, I do feel like I can throw in the rotation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kodai Senga took a step back into the bullpen and took a step forward in performance. In his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,1716,4,61,144,25,4216,40,185],"class_list":["post-738276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia-phillies","tag-baseball","tag-kodai-senga","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-philadelphiaphillies","tag-phillies","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116831508503204130","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}