{"id":801456,"date":"2026-09-10T13:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T13:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/801456\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T13:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T13:09:16","slug":"kodai-senga-keeps-finding-a-way-to-carry-mets-closer-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/801456\/","title":{"rendered":"Kodai Senga keeps finding a way to carry Mets closer job"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Kodai\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Sep 6, 2026; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets pitcher Kodai Senga (34) reacts with Luis Torrens (13) after winning the game against the San Francisco Giants at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

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Kodai Senga showed he can adapt to the chaos, and it didn\u2019t get more wild than on Wednesday night when he was forced to warm up quickly and get into a 15-13 ballgame in an attempt to close out the Miami Marlins.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But after two well-struck, one-out doubles, his cushion was down to just one run. After a visit from pitching coach Justin Willard, he rode his patented ghost fork, throwing 10 straight to get Owen Caissie and Kyle Stowers to end it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was a great example of recognizing what is really working and what another team is sitting on,\u201d interim manager Andy Green said. \u201cThey obviously took some good swings on his fastball, which wasn\u2019t a bad thing to start that inning when you have a three-run lead and understand you can pitch to contact a little bit early on.\u201d<\/p>\n

With it, Senga is a perfect 7-for-7 as the Mets\u2019 closer after his demotion from the starting rotation and the injury to Devin Williams that ultimately opened the door for him to step into this role. During that time, he has allowed just three earned runs, good for a 2.03 ERA<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun to see,\u201d president of baseball operations David Stearns said of Senga. \u201cI think he prefers to start, but his investment in that role, the way he embraces that role, is a great example for his teammates and the organization as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has become abundantly clear that Senga cannot be relied on as a starter moving forward. With Williams scuffling in his first year in Queens \u2014 just as he did last year in the Bronx \u2014 there is an opportunity for the veteran right-hander to run away with this gig.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It all boils down to whether he would be willing to shed his status as a starter, though. And that might be a far more difficult conversation.\n<\/p>\n

For more on the Mets and Kodai Senga, visit AMNY.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sep 6, 2026; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets pitcher Kodai Senga (34) reacts with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,1716,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203,185],"class_list":["post-801456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-mets","tag-baseball","tag-kodai-senga","tag-mets","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-mets","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkmets","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117246910043189879","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801456","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=801456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}