The Mets didn’t know what to expect as Kodai Senga made his return to the mound against the Phillies in Game 1 of the NLDS on Saturday afternoon, but they certainly were happy with the effort they received.
Making just his second start of the season, Senga looked awfully close to his dominant form, as he allowed just one run on one hit while striking out three across two strong innings.
That one run came from the first batter he faced, as Kyle Schwarber jumped him for a leadoff homer on the third pitch of the bottom of the first, but he bounced back quickly after that.
"It was a regretful pitch, I wish I could take it back," Senga said through a translator. "But because the home run was so sudden, I was able to switch my mindset and became more calm as I ran through the data in my head."
He issued a four-pitch walk to Bryce Harper but used a pair of strikeouts to get out of the frame without further damage, before closing the book on his afternoon with a perfect bottom half of the second.
It was certainly an encouraging day of work as Senga was able to stretch out to 31 pitches and he had his full arsenal working as he topped out at 97 mph on his fastball and generated three swings-and-misses.
"I thought he was really good," Carlos Mendoza said. "Other than the pitch that Schwarber took him deep, he was good today. The fact that we saw 97 out of him and the secondary pitches, the split and slider were both good."
Most importantly, though, Senga was able to make it through the outing healthy and he can play a factor for the Mets along this postseason run if things stay that way.
"There are a lot of things to reflect on," he said. "I was definitely amped up with it being such a big game, but it felt good to be back. I'm relieved I was able to get out of today healthy and it's satisfying that the team won."