Mets' Kodai Senga doesn't have it, rally falls short in loss to Nationals
Mets' Juan Soto walks back to the dugout after striking out in the first inning against the Nationals on Wednesday night in Washington. Credit: AP/Nick Wass
WASHINGTON — It’s been a confounding season for Kodai Senga. On the one hand, his 2.58 ERA is nothing to scoff at, but he’s been bitten by injury and inconsistency and, like most of this Mets rotation, an inability to pitch past the fifth inning.
So, in some ways, Wednesday’s performance against the Nationals was pretty predictable. But for a team finally gaining momentum after a brutal two-month stretch, it was nonetheless frustrating.
Senga labored against the cellar-dwelling Nats, and the Mets’ lineup came one big hit short of a go-ahead rally as they fell, 5-4, at Nationals Park. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak.
“I think I was able to attack the zone well but I just couldn’t finish them off,” Senga said via interpreter.
Senga allowed five runs (four earned) and six hits with two walks and four strikeouts in five-plus innings, and the Mets, whose offense has been clicking of late, drew within one in the sixth before squandering a bases-loaded, one-out situation. The Mets, who have consistently been one of the worst teams in baseball with runners in scoring position, actually came into the game on an upswing. They were batting .352 in those situations in the first 16 games of the month, with eight doubles, seven homers and 61 RBIs.
They got the potential tying run on base with one out in the ninth when Cedric Mullins reached on an infield single off Jose A. Ferrer. Luis Torrens, though, hit into the game-ending 4-6-3 double play.
They went 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position, left five on base and managed just one hit against four Nationals relievers.
In fact, the bad news came early and often for the Mets, who first saw Brandon Nimmo exit the game in the middle of the second due to neck stiffness — a recurring issue that caused him to leave a game in May. The ailment dates to a collision Nimmo had with an outfield wall in 2019. He’s day to day, and the issue generally takes 24-48 hours to resolve, but Nimmo said he’ll have to manage it for the rest of his career.
“Depending on how serious it is, I can kind of tough it out and play through it but this was affecting the swing and me running, so I wasn’t able to do what I wanted on the defense, either,” he said. “When I was running in, I wasn’t able to look up, so I was being a detriment on both ends.”
The Nationals scored two runs in the third, and the Mets suffered yet another scare: This time, with Dylan Crews on first, Drew Millas’ foul ball ripped the glove off Torrens’ hand. Torrens, now the primary catcher since Francisco Alvarez went down with a potentially season-ending UCL sprain in his right thumb, had his hand checked by trainers before opting to stay in the game (he said after that, while he was banged up, he didn’t expect the issue to linger).
With Millas on base for catcher’s interference, Senga walked James Wood to load the bases, and then CJ Abrams hit a slow roller to first and beat Senga in a footrace for a run-scoring infield single. Josh Bell’s sacrifice fly made it 2-0.
They tacked on two more in the fourth: Paul DeJong led off with a double and, two batters later, Crews drove him in with a double of his own. Millas then lined a hanging sweeper past a diving Pete Alonso and into the rightfield corner for a run-scoring triple.
The Mets got one back in the fifth, when Brett Baty absolutely crushed Brad Lord’s inside fastball, hitting it a career-high 455 feet to right-center. Senga, though, gave it right back. Bell blasted a 2-and-1 cutter over the heart of the plate to right-center for a solo shot, giving the Nationals a 5-1 advantage.
“Stuff-wise, he was good,” Carlos Mendoza said of Senga. “We’ve been asking him to compete in the strike zone but then...today [he] left pitches right down the middle and they made him pay.”
The Nationals’ pitching, which came into the day with the second-worst ERA in the majors (5.35), briefly reverted to form in a three-run sixth.
Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto worked back-to-back walks to lead off against Lord, and one out later, Alonso brought Lindor home with a double.
Jeff McNeil, coming off a three-RBI day Tuesday, plated two more with a double. Mark Vientos reached on a fielding error and Baty walked, but reliever Cole Henry was able to wriggle out of trouble after getting Mullins to fly out to shallow right and coaxing a groundout off Torrens’ bat.
“We have the bases loaded there down one and they got Mullins with one out but then Luis hits a ball really hard right at the second baseman,” Mendoza said. “After that, you know, the lefties [Shinnosuke Ogasawara and Ferrer] came in and kept us off balance. We didn’t create any traffic.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
