Mets' Kodai Senga looks better in bullpen outing, but that doesn't guarantee a return to the rotation

Kodai Senga was looking all but unusable when the Mets banished him to the bullpen last Wednesday.

His record sat at 0-6 and his ERA had swelled to 10.08 through seven starts.

But when the Mets used him on Sunday in a bullpen game against the Phillies at Citi Field, Senga was much better than that. In his first career relief appearance, the 33-year-old righthander worked the final five innings with the bullpen short on rested relievers.

There was a lot more good than bad, although Senga did serve up the deciding two-run homer to Kyle Schwarber. The 408-foot shot to right-center in the seventh gave Philadelphia a 5-4 win.

So make that 0-7.

Still, Senga allowed only those two runs, four hits and one walk with four strikeouts.

“He was really good today,” interim manager Andy Green said. “There was aggression in everything. I thought he used his forkball more. That is an elite weapon. And you saw really good hitters take bad swings at it .  .  . It’s nice to see him use it in pivotal situations. I encourage him to continue to do it.

“The fastball had life, too. He’s got good stuff.”

One game doesn’t make a trend, but at least it was encouraging, and it sure beat Tuesday’s start against the Cubs in which he gave up seven runs, three hits and five walks in 3 2⁄3 innings. Or the one before that, which came with four runs, two hits and four walks in four innings against the Reds.

“When I fell behind the last few outings, I felt like I really had to throw a strike,” Senga said. “I was hyperfocused on that. But today I just looked at the catcher’s mitt and I tried to throw it there.”

Senga did second-guess himself about throwing the 1-and-2 fastball that Schwarber launched, and the location of it.

But Schwarber, who struck out and grounded out in his other two at-bats against Senga, came away impressed overall.

“He’s got a wide variety of pitches in the zone,” he said. “Obviously, the fork is a big pitch for him, but he mixes other pitches as well, and they were competitive, where he’s mixing in sliders, not just four-seam fastballs, cutters. He mixed in a slower breaking ball as well.

“So he was doing a really good job of just being in or around the zone to not make the decisions right out of hand super-easy .  .  . The decision’s not right away take or swing.”

So is Green tempted to put Senga back in the rotation?

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” he said. “He threw a starter’s workload today .  .  . so he’s going to need some level of starter’s rest to be ready to go back and pitch again. So sometimes that dictates what the role ultimately is in the short term, and then the team needs as well.

“I think you saw when he came in to face the top of the order, the intrigue with like a leverage reliever as well. That first inning, he was 97 to 99 with a real forkball and handled three of the best hitters in the game [Trea Turner, Schwarber and Bryce Harper].”

Senga knows who ultimately will decide whether he goes back into the rotation.

“I think it’s just up to me, if I can compete and be in the zone, unlike my previous outing, where strikes were strikes and balls were clearly balls,” Senga said. “Then I don’t deserve a spot in the rotation. But on the flip side, if I am able to compete, I do feel like I can throw in the rotation.”