Encouraging signs from Kodai Senga as the Mets blank the Marlins

The Mets twirled their second shutout on the homestand as Francisco Lindor notched a milestone

Image courtesy of the New York Mets

What’s up with the Mets? ⚾

• The kept rolling on Monday with a 2-0 win over the Marlins at Citi Field (box | highlights)

• Kodai Senga started for the Mets and he threw five scoreless innings with only two walks and five hits allowed against four strikeouts

• The Mets bullpen was brilliant again - Danny Young, José Buttó and Ryne Stanek combined to strikeout four with only one walk over four scoreless innings

• Juan Soto drove in a run with a double in the third and Tyrone Taylor singled in an insurance run in the eighth, accounting for the only Mets runs on the night

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Injury Updates 🏥

• Luis Torrens (forearm contusion) was out of the lineup again on Monday but was available off the bench

• Jeff McNeil (oblique strain) has yet to participate in on-field batting practice, but is expected to do so soon

• Paul Blackburn (knee soreness) threw a bullpen session on April 5, is expected to do so again today and then progress towards live batting practice

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Play of the Game ⭐️

With his single in the fifth, Francisco Lindor notched the 1500th hit of his career as part of a 3-for-4 night at the plate. He is the 24th active player to reach the 1500 hit milestone, and is one of nine players to record 1500+ hits since 2015:

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Who’s Hot? 🔥

• New York’s pitching staff owns a 1.72 ERA through the season’s first ten games—the best mark in baseball. It is the second-best mark in franchise history through the team’s first 10 games of a season, trailing only the 1968 team (1.67). Their starters have a 2.16 ERA, their relievers own a 1.15 ERA

• Francisco Lindor has hit in six straight games and is hitting .364/.423/.455 during that span

• Pete Alonso is hitting .364/.467/.846 with three doubles, three home runs and 11 RBI over his last seven games

• Juan Soto has reached base in each of the first 10 games of the season, a career-best season opening streak. He has reached base two or more times in six of those games

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Kodai Senga! 👻

New York Post

• Since 1901, his 223 career strikeouts are the 10th-most by a pitcher through their first 32 career games in major league history

• Senga’s 223 career strikeouts are also the the third-most among Japanese-born pitchers in that span, trailing only Hideo Nomo (267) and Yu Darvish (249) and is the fourth-most by a Met, trailing Dwight Gooden (282), Matt Harvey (242) and Noah Syndergaard (231)

• Has allowed two earned runs or fewer in 10 straight games dating back to August 19, 2023

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Down on the Farm 🌾

All Mets minor league affiliates were off on Monday.

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Today’s Game 🗓️

Match-up: Mets (7-3) vs. Marlins (5-5)

Where: Citi Field - Flushing, NY

Starters: RHP Clay Holmes (0-1, 2.89 ERA) vs. RHP Connor Gillispie (0-1, 3.60 ERA)

When: 4:10 PM ET

Where to Watch: SNY

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Notes: Encouraging signs from Senga, Lindor and the “Juan Soto Effect,” and concerning trends on the infield… ✍️

Nope, the Mets aren’t hitting very much.

Yup, the Mets are hitting even less than that with runners in scoring position.

Yup, the Mets are pitching way over their heads to start the season.

And nope, none of those trends are sustainable.

But you know what? They’re 7-3, have won five games in a row, they’re getting just enough offense to win, are playing generally tight now defensively, and are getting big hits and big moments from their big players to win these games.

A notes post is on tap for your Tuesday morning…

Encouraging signs from Kodai Senga

AP Photo

One of those big moments on Monday night came from Kodai Senga last night, who, by all accounts, didn’t have his best stuff on the mound. Yet he was able to find a way and get through five innings without his most effective forkball and pitching to soft contact around the diamond.

It was an otherwise ordinary night for a pitcher, but for Senga, it was critical in that he needed to show some sort of steadiness on the mound, even if it was only for five innings. After missing basically a year in 2024, he is a work-in-progress again, and the Mets are still really building him up to major league game speed. They’ve obviously set him up for success with his first two starts coming against the Marlins, a softer opponent to help jump-start his season. His next start will come against the Twins next week, a team that is struggling in their own way to start the season.

Nevertheless, he delivered an encouraging effort on the mound for the Mets on Monday.

And you were worried?

New York Post

Remember that time everyone was worried Francisco Lindor was going to get off to one of his usual slow starts?

Well, after he did get off to a slow start over the first four games, he is starting to look like Francisco Lindor at the plate, having hit in six straight games with an .878 OPS during that stretch.

Maybe he had something else on his mind during the first few days of the season? Like, you know, a new baby on the way? It’s okay - he’s human, he’s a great player too, so we will give him a pass on being human.

There’s a big opportunity in front of Lindor, and that opportunity is really Juan Soto. He’s in a fortunate situation where he may not see a lot of balls out of the zone since nobody really wants to walk him for Soto. That means, he’s going to see a lot of strikes and if he can routinely be ahead in the count, a lot of fastball counts and hittable strikes which should contribute to an uptick in production over a long period of time.

In fact, while it’s a small sample, Lindor is seeing a first pitch strike 69 percent of the time so far this season, which would be a dramatic uptick for his career. That’s indicative of a more aggressive approach for Lindor to avoid pitching to Juan Soto with runners on.

Around here, we call that the, “Juan Soto Effect.”

Let’s see if he’s able to continue to take advantage of that.

Ok, I am a little worried!

Here is what the Mets are getting offensively on a position-by-position basis so far in 2025:

The three positions which are glaringly bad are second base, third base, and center field, where they are getting a sub-.400 OPS from each of those spots, and barely a .400 OPS from another spot. And at second base, they’re bordering on a .300 OPS.

In the end, Mark Vientos deserves the benefit of the doubt considering his season and postseason heroics in 2024. And his at-bats last night were very encouraging even if he was 0-for-1 with three walks (the 0-for was a hard-hit liner to left field). I am looking for better body language from Vientos, which is probably the most concerning part of his 4-for-35 start. He’s clearly trying to live up to what he did in 2024 and putting extra weight on his shoulders in order to do that. He’s frustrated, stressed, and just looks like he might need a breather just to reset his mind. Maybe the Mets can try and do that on Wednesday with the off-day on Thursday?

Even so, let’s talk about Vientos if this continues for a month or so.

As for second base, the Mets don’t have a lot of options here, at least until Jeff McNeil returns, but that won’t be for at least a couple of more weeks.

I always felt second base was going to be a fluid situation for the Mets all year long as David Stearns repeatedly said he wanted to afford the young players an opportunity there. Having said that, I was operating under the assumption McNeil would be a part of that fluidity (he will be, just not right now), and regardless, it seemed like a no-brainer at the time to bring José Iglesias into camp as a utility infielder. Now that just looks like a giant pie in the face for the Mets front office considering the injury to McNeil and the young players having been anemic at the plate to date.

Again, more time is necessary to properly evaluate Luisangel Acuña and Brett Baty, and I know people are running very low on patience with Baty since this has been going on more or less since the second half of the 2022 season, so his struggles weren’t exactly unpredictable. But it isn’t too difficult to figure out why the Mets are struggling to score runs here when over 40 percent of their lineup has generally been an automatic out over the season’s first ten games.

For now, if I were the Mets, I’d just install Acuña as the everyday second baseman and use Baty in a bench role until that gets exhausted. Acuña at least gives the Mets speed and athleticism, and he’s a natural middle infielder, which will in turn give the Mets better defense up the middle. And quite frankly, Acuña probably has more upside than Baty does right now.

Who knows - maybe that changes and Baty actually does find a clue at the plate. But there’s just no evidence that’s going to happen at the big league level.

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Around the League 🚩

• A sloppy night by the Dodgers led to a 6-4 loss to the Nationals, their third loss in their last four games - Shohei Ohtani homered as part of a 3-for-4 night for LA, and James Wood hit a two-run homer for Washington

• Justin Steele fired seven shutout innings and Kyle Tucker continued to roll as the Cubs blanked the Rangers 7-0 at Wrigley

• Fernando Tatís Jr., Luis Arraez and Manny Machado combined to go 6-for-12 with three doubles, a home run and four runs scored in the Padres 5-4 win over the A’s in West Sacramento

• The Tigers got to Carlos Rodón for six runs as they came away with a 6-2 win over the Yankees in snowy Detroit