After a memorable win, Mets must now overcome Kodai Senga's deflating injury

Senga suffered a calf injury in the sixth inning of Friday's win

7/27/2024, 4:25 AM

In the hallway leading to the manager’s office, after his postgame press conference, Carlos Mendoza was still marveling at what he’d witnessed on this memorable night at Citi Field.

“Senga was something, wasn’t he?” the Mets manager was saying to myself and to SNY’s Steve Gelbs. “Throwing the high fastball by guys, and the splitter was disappearing. His first time back. Man, he was good.

“And the crowd, when we hit the home runs…was it that loud here in the playoffs (in 2022)?”

“Much louder,” Gelbs said, “because that team had been swept in Atlanta (to lose the division) and the crowd was never fully into it.”

“This sounded more like 2015,” I said.

“All I know is it was really loud,” Mendoza said with a smile.

“And then it went dead quiet,” I said, referring to Kodai Senga’s calf injury.

“Yeah, but that’s baseball,” Mendoza said. “It happens. We’ll be all right. I really like this team.”

And with that, Mendoza headed for his office. Maybe in another hour or two the disappointment of losing Senga for what is surely an extended period would start to weigh on him, but there was no sign of it 20 minutes after the game.

In some ways, it was perfectly understandable. His Mets are on such a roll right now, overtaking the Atlanta Braves for the first Wild Card spot on this night with an 8-4 win, after a miserable start to the season, he has a right to feel they can overcome anything at this point.

After all, they are 31-13 since being a season-low 11 games under .500 on June 2, with an offense that is bludgeoning pitchers on nearly a nightly basis these days, making anything seem possible for this team.

On this night, J.D. Martinez, Mark Vientos, and Francisco Alvarez all hit home runs in the third inning off long-time Met nemesis Charlie Morton to essentially blow the Braves out of the building and set off the explosion of noise that Mendoza was referencing afterward.

And though I’m sure Citi Field has been that loud at times over the years, in the moment it sounded like nothing I’d ever heard. It was the combination of the three home runs off Morton and the fact that the Mets were beating up on the big, bad Braves, who have pretty much owned them since the ‘90s.

That’s what made the Senga injury all the more deflating. Citi Field was enjoying one big party, with the Mets’ ace dominating the Braves’ lineup in his first start of his injury-delayed season when disaster struck.

The crowd, in fact, shrieked in panic even before Pete Alonso caught Austin Riley’s pop-up in the sixth inning near the mound, reacting as Senga hopped in pain and grabbed for his lower left leg as he was moving to get away from the pop-up, and then went to the ground.

In truth, it was hard not to think of Aaron Rodgers, suffering that Achilles tendon injury last September in his first series with the Jets.

At least in that sense, it was good news that the Mets announced it as a calf strain, but even that likely means several weeks before Senga makes his second start of the season.

In his press conference, Mendoza wasn’t putting any type of timeline on the injury, saying the Mets wouldn’t really know until Senga has an MRI on Saturday.

The players too were upbeat in the clubhouse, reveling in the way they’re playing the game these days, but Martinez made it clear this is a significant injury.

“It’s a tough piece to lose,” he said of Senga. “But there’s no sense dwelling on it. He’s going to do everything he can and hopefully, he’s back by the playoffs.”

Back by the playoffs.

That’s a sobering thought for a team that has been dealing with a weak bullpen and now suddenly faces a potential starting pitching shortage.

Senga’s return had come just in time after the Mets lost Christian Scott to an elbow injury this week. And though Mendoza said they’ll now abandon the plan for a six-man rotation, their starting rotation is average at best without Senga and the potential of Scott.

Jose Butto is their next-best starter beyond Luis Severino, Sean Manaea, Jose Quintana, and David Peterson, but he has quickly become too valuable in the bullpen to even think about moving him back to the rotation.

Instead, Tylor Megill returns from the minors to start Saturday against the Braves, and while he has shown flashes of dominance, he hasn’t been able to pitch well consistently in his three seasons of opportunity as a starter.

What it all means, of course, is that suddenly David Stearns has to try to find a starter at the trade deadline in addition to finding answers for the bullpen, the Mets’ most obvious weakness.

It’s quite a dilemma for a front office that wasn’t planning on giving up any prospects of substance at this trade deadline, as it tries to build something for the long term at least partly with a strong farm system.

But that was before the 2024 Mets went on this two-month surge that has put them in the first Wild Card spot and made the case they could be a dangerous postseason team with a stronger bullpen and, perhaps now, another starter as well.

All of that will be determined in the next few days. This was a night to remember in so many ways. What I’ll remember most is the noise in the ballpark and then the excitement in Mendoza’s voice in that hallway afterward.

His ace was gone again but the first-year manager was seemingly undeterred, as if this team has convinced him it can overcome anything.

We’ll find out if he’s right.

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