Game 9 of 162
Mets 5 - Marlins 2 (Citi Field, Flushing, NY)
Mets record: 5-4
Mets streak: Won 2
WP - Kodai Senga (2-0)
LP - Trevor Rogers (0-2)
SV - David Robertson (2)
Seat on the Korner:
We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.
Kodai Senga gave the Mets their second good start in a row, and also provided his second good start in a row to start his MLB career. He went six innings and gave up three hits and three walks (two in his final inning), and struck out six hitters (four on the ghost fork.) The only blemish was Jazz Chisholm's solo HR in the 6th.
Need to Know
The one thing the Marlins tried to do was be more aggressive against Senga. In Senga's first start, Marlins hitters swung at the first pitch four times out of 21 hitters, and nine out of 21 swung at one of the first two pitches. This start? Nine hitters out of 24 swung at the first pitch, and 13 out of 24 swung at one of the first two pitches. Not sure it served them particularly well, but it's going to be interesting to see how teams adjust to his ghost fork to try to fastball hunt early in the count.
Ben May was generous yet consistent with his strike zone, giving Senga the calls on the outer edge to righty hitters, and giving pitchers a little extra on the top half.
The Marlins' bullpen will be gassed for Sunday's series finale. Huascar Brazoban, Andrew Nardi, and Matt Barnes pitched on both Friday and Saturday. It doesn't help that the Marlins' starters haven't gone deep in either game.
Mark Canha, making his first start at first base since 2020, had himself two hits to bring his average up to .194.
David Robertson came in on two days rest and got a 1-2-3 inning on 11 pitches to earn his second save of the season.
Turning Point
Senga had just gotten tagged for a run in the top of the 6th Chisholm's home run, and he was starting to lose his control and would leave the game after the inning. So the Marlins had a little momentum going into the bottom of the inning. It was then that Eduardo Escobar pointed the momentum back in the Mets direction, and provided the turning point for the game, and hopefully his season.
Escobar was frustraded after his first two at-bats, a hard groundout to short and a fly out to the wall in left. So as you can tell from the video, Escobar was equally elated and relieved while rounding first base.
Three Keys
Pete Alonso's two run homer in the 5th which made it 3-0 was his fourth homer in the last three games. Alonso is only hitting .235 but he's tied for the major league lead in homers with five.
Senga has shown some ability to get out of trouble. In his first start, he allowed the first four runners to get on base, but he buckled up to get out of that jam and cruise to victory. Today, after giving up the homer to Chisholm in the 6th, he got Garrett Cooper to ground out but then walked Luis Arraez. He then threw a wild pitch to Jorge Soler, which enabled Arraez to not only go to second base, but then to third on Soler's sac fly. Then he walked Jean Segura to set up a key at-bat against Avisail Garcia with the tying runs on base. After a mound visit from Jeremy Hefner, Senga got a one pitch out from Garcia as he grounded out to end the inning. When the heat has turned up, Senga has delivered so far.
John Curtiss got a huge out in the 7th with the bases loaded against Jorge Soler. Drew Smith gave up a walk and a single, while Brooks Raley followed with a walk to Garrett Cooper and an RBI single to the newest Met killer: Luis Arraez, setting up Curtiss vs Soler. On the second pitch, Curtiss got Soler to pop up to McNeil to end the threat. Curtiss then also pitched a clean 8th with three groundouts.
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