It all could have gone sideways for Kodai Senga in his major-league debut with the New York Mets.
Over the first four batters faced on Sunday against the Miami Marlins, he allowed two hits for a run and two walks to load the bases with the Mets holding a 2-1 lead.
“Obviously this was something I had looked forward to,” Senga said. “But the first inning was sad.”
But the 30-year-old, who starred for over a decade in Japan settled and did so spectacularly. He not only got out of the jam without conceding another run, but he didn’t allow another run for the rest of the afternoon, going 5.1 innings and striking out eight — all swinging on his vaunted ghost forkball — while allowing that lone run on three hits to pick up the win in a 5-1 Mets triumph at LoanDepot Park.
“I think the biggest thing for me today was despite that first inning, I was able to get out of it,” Senga, whose glove adorned the image of a ghost holding a trident, said of his debut. “Moving on, I hope to get strikeouts with my other pitches as well.”
The win ensured the Mets (3-1) took three out of four in their season-opening trip to Miami, sparked offensively on Sunday by Tommy Pham, who went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBI in his audition in the lead-off spot and in center field with Brandon Nimmo getting the day off.
“I felt like I did a good job of controlling the zone,” Pham told SNY after the game. “When you do that and you’re balanced and on time, good things happen.”
New York managed to get a pair of runs across in the top of the first after Yuli Gurriel gave them new life, dropping the relay on what would have been an inning-ending double play on Francisco Lindor.
Marlins starter Taylor Rodgers walked Pete Alonso and Mark Canha on consecutive pitches to load the bases for Jeff McNeil, whose dribbler up the first-base line was fielded by the Miami pitcher — but his underhanded toss to Gurriel was too slow and off the mark to put the visitors up 2-0.
The 36-pitch inning was arduous for Senga, who had to wait a bit longer than anticipated for his debut.
The nerves were clear — and he matched Rodgers by throwing 36 pitches in a first inning that took a half hour. Luis Arraez, who dominated the Mets all series with nine hits, greeted Senga with a hit before a wild pitch moved him to second. Jorge Soler drove him home with a double before Senga even recorded an out.
“Definitely a lot of nerves. My legs felt like a ghost,” Senga said. “Once I got into that pinch, I settled myself down and calmed myself down a little bit.”
Senga loaded the bases on walks but settled down to get Gurriel and Jesús Sanchez swinging — the former losing his bat in the process — on the ghost forkball before getting Jon Berti to line out to right to escape the first with a lead.
“It was a gradual thing, step by step. I got more used to the moment I was in,” Senga said. “Once I was able to relax and calm down, the forkball came with it.”
And so began his dominance.
Including the end of the first, he retired 15 of the final 17 batters he faced while allowing just one more hit with those eight punchouts — all of whom swung and missed at the ghost — while the Mets got him more support.
“He’s adjusted to whatever — think about all the things that have been thrown at him,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said of Senga’s litany of adjustments that were made to life in the United States. “I’m real proud of him.”
While Rodgers retired 10 of 11, Pham put the Mets up 4-1 in the fifth inning when he socked a two-run home run for his first of the season and with his new team well over the center-field fence.
“Before the game, I made sure to work top of the zone,” Pham said of what helped him turn on the cutter that ran inside. “I felt like I was well-prepared to go in there and face Rodgers today.”
It came just after Tim Locastro was hit by a pitch to get on, which helped run Rodgers from the game after he hit Lindor with a pitch two batters after Pham’s blast.
Senga continued to roll, striking out three of the final five batters he faced to end his debut on the highest of notes. He got the dangerous Jazz Chisholm to fan on the ghost with one out in the fifth as his final hurdle of the day — just one pitch short of the 90-pitch limit Showalter placed on him last week.
“He just started getting command of his pitches and get some counts in his favor and make them rush,” Showalter said. “It opened up a lot of avenues for him.”
In the seventh, Locastro was hit by a pitch in a second-consecutive at-bat and, again, was driven home by Pham when his liner to center was missed by Chisholm and rolled to the wall for a run-scoring double.
