Mets' Kodai Senga, Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani create quite the buzz at Citi Field
Kodai Senga of the Ne Mets pitches during the second inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Citi Field on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Kodai Senga, by virtue of wearing both the National League’s ERA crown and the Mets’ purple Citi Connect threads, was the main event on Sunday night at Citi Field.
But because of a rare set of circumstances and his unique rehab schedule, the two-way unicorn known as Shohei Ohtani wound up as the undercard that same afternoon, a popular warm-up band for the ghost-fork-palooza to follow.
Ohtani took the mound on Sunday afternoon for a live 22-pitch batting practice session, facing hitters for the first time since his 2023 elbow surgery, so there were plenty of cameras locked on his every move — along with a handful of Mets studiously watching from the home dugout rail. Among that group was manager Carlos Mendoza, who felt compelled to check out the spectacle happening in his own backyard.
“It’s Shohei Ohtani,” said Mendoza, smiling. “And we got an opportunity to watch him. Hopefully I get to watch him [pitch] in real games because that means we’re playing against him in October. If we get to face him, that’ll be a good thing for us.”
As for the performance that counted, all eyes were on Senga, who didn’t have his scariest ghost fork — or even the light gray glove he was forced to ditch by the umpires — yet managed to restrain the Dodgers for 5 1⁄3 innings in leading the Mets to a 3-1 victory and series win over the defending World Series champions.
Senga (5-3) shook off Ohtani’s leadoff homer, the first he allowed in 202 batters dating to his opening start this season — a career-best stretch of eight games — and ducked trouble the rest of the way. He threw more cutters (27) than signature forkballs (22) and varied his weaponry. Of his five strikeouts, two came on fastballs, two were ghost forks and the other was a slider.
“I used my whole repertoire,” Senga said through an interpreter. “Used every pitch in all sorts of situations, and I was able to get through it.”
Ohtani, who is hitting .295 with 18 homers (tied with Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber for the MLB lead) as the everyday DH, isn’t expected to rejoin the Dodgers’ tattered rotation until after the All-Star break, and the two NL rivals will be done with each other after the Mets’ trip to Los Angeles in the first week of June.
Sunday’s Ohtani-Senga showdown was the marquee matchup of the night, and not only because dozens of Japanese reporters — Ohtani’s regular traveling beat — were camped in Flushing for the Dodgers’ visit. It didn’t take very long for the fireworks to start.
Before Sunday, the Marlins’ Kyle Stowers was the only hitter to take Senga deep, in the second at-bat of the season. But the streak ended in spectacular fashion at the hands of Ohtani, who blasted Senga’s second pitch of the game, a 95-mph fastball, for a 411-foot shot that landed in the rightfield upper deck.
Later, when Senga was asked if he enjoyed these battles with Ohtani, he chuckled as the question was being translated.
“It’s not fun,” Senga said.
It was Ohtani’s first career homer off Senga, who escaped a hairy first inning — complicated by Mark Vientos’ error — when Tyrone Taylor cut down Mookie Betts at the plate and Teoscar Hernandez struck out looking on an 86-mph slider. From there, Senga kept the Dodgers off the scoreboard until a one-out walk in the sixth finished his night at 101 pitches.
Senga retired eight straight at one point and dodged a bases-loaded jam in the fifth when he got Will Smith to ground out to third. He walked four and allowed five hits as his ERA rose slightly to 1.46.
“He found a way,” Mendoza said. “That goes to show you how good he is. On a night that he’s not at his best, against a lineup like that, he’s able to keep us in the game, make pitches when he needed to and give us a chance.”
Despite the recognizable brilliance, this version of Senga is slightly different from the ghost-fork specialist who finished runner-up for Rookie of the Year in 2023. His fastball velocity is down, averaging 94.8 mph this season as opposed to 95.7 in ’23, and the same goes for his strikeout percentage, which was at 23.0% compared with the 29.1% rate of his rookie season. On Sunday night, Senga’s max velo was 96.8 mph with a 94.9 average.
“I think those are targets we can try to chase,” pitching coach Jeremy Hefner said Sunday afternoon. “Some of it’s by design, like his velocity, kind of working his way into it, making sure that he was feeling good. And we know the [ghost fork] is going to be there almost regardless of how he’s feeling.”
Heading into Sunday’s start, Senga’s cutter was a pitch he recently focused on during his bullpen sessions. While it already was a good option, Senga wanted to make it great, even though Mendoza said that pitch wasn’t the sharpest against L.A. So Senga basically had to get more creative Sunday without a Grade A ghost fork.
“I could really tell they were looking for it,” he said. “That’s just very Dodgers-like, but we kept using it.”
Dodgers-like?
“I just think they’re a very clever team,” he said. “They’re just a bunch of clever hitters.”
Apparently not clever enough to solve a subpar Senga in the series finale.
Come October, maybe we’ll get the head-to-head showdown Mendoza mentioned, with Senga and Ohtani both pitching in a game with real stakes. For now, Sunday’s double-feature was enough to leave us wanting more.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
