Is Kodai Senga reaching the end of the line?

Carlos Mendoza is not committing to Senga making his next scheduled start

NY Post

What’s up with the Mets? ⚾️

• The Mets lost again to the Marlins on Sunday, this time falling to Sandy Alcantara and the Fish by a 5-1 margin (box)

• RHP Kodai Senga started for the Mets and was disappointing yet again, surrendering five earned runs on seven hits and two walks in just 4.2 innings

• LHP Brandon Waddell — just recalled from Syracuse earlier in the day — did an admirable job of saving the rest of the bullpen, throwing 4.1 scoreless innings of relief behind Senga

• The Mets were not able to do much against Miami ace Sandy Alcantara, who limited them to just a run on four hits in seven strong innings

• 2B Jeff McNeil was the only Met to collect multiple hits on the day

• New York allowed a total of 32 runs over the four-game series – an average of eight runs per game

---

Roster Moves 📰

• LHP Brandon Waddell was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse

• RHP Chris Devenski was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse

---

Injury Updates 🏥

• C Francisco Álvarez (fractured left pinky, torn UCL in right thumb) played again for Syracuse on Sunday, going 1-for-5 with three strikeouts

---

---

Playoff Race 🏁

The Mets suffered through a tremendously disappointing weekend against the Marlins, dropping three out of four in a series they simply had to do the opposite.

The Phillies finally lost a game to the Braves this weekend which means the Mets will say six games back in the NL East.

Meanwhile, the Reds beat the Cardinals and pulled within four games of the Mets in the Wild Card standings. The Mets magic number over the Reds is 22.

Per Fangraphs, the Mets have a 92.8% chance of qualifying for the playoffs.

---

Play of the Game ⭐️

This game was close for a while and the Marlins never really completely pulled away. But against a pitcher of Sandy Alcantara’s caliber, runs are at a premium. Already down 1-0 in the 3rd, Kodai Senga served up a two-run homer to Agustin Ramirez that really put the Mets behind the eight ball and into a hole they would never recover from.

---

Down on the Farm 🌾

• DH Jared Young (Triple-A): 1-for-4, 2B, 3 RBI, BB

• C Daiverson Gutierrez (No. 19 Prospect, Single-A): 2-for-3, BB

• C Ronald Hernandez (High-A): 3-for-3, BB, 2 runs scored

• RHP R.J. Gordon (No. 25 Prospect, Double-A): 5 IP, 3 H, ER, 0 BB, 9 K (win)

BOX SCORES

Single-A STL | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR

---

Today’s Game 🗓️

Match-up: Mets (73-64) at Tigers (80-58)

Where: Comerica Park — Detroit, MI

Starters: LHP Sean Manaea (1-2, 5.01 ERA) vs. RHP Charlie Morton (9-10, 5.25 ERA)

When: 1:10 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY, MLB Network

---

---

The Mets officially have a Kodai Senga problem ✍️

Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

When RHP Kodai Senga went down with a hamstring injury in early June, it was a devastating blow to the Mets rotation. Through his first 13 starts of the season, Senga had just pitched to a 1.47 ERA with a 1.11 WHIP. Opponents were hitting just .195 against him, and he was in the early conversation for the NL Cy Young award.

Unfortunately, that injury changed everything for both Senga and the Mets.

Since that injury on June 12, the Mets starting rotation has averaged just 4.7 IP/start, has thrown just 318 innings in 68 games, and has pitched to a 5.04 ERA during that span. That has put an immense burden on the bullpen, which has thrown 4.1 IP/game and a whopping 279.2 innings in those 68 games, which has unsurprisingly led to a 4.86 ERA from the relief corps during that span.

Interestingly enough though, Senga was somehow able to return roughly a month later, but in nine starts since being activated, he has looked like a shell of his former self and has contributed to the general ineffectiveness of the rotation.

In just 39.2 post-injury innings since mid-July, Senga has allowed 26 earned runs—a 5.89 ERA. After going six or more innings in roughly half of his early season outings, he has struggled mightily to even go five since he got hurt. Consistently getting knocked out early has contributed substantially to the Mets bullpen getting dramatically overworked in the 2nd half in what has unfortunately been a theme for this starting staff all summer.

Senga has essentially gone from this team’s ace to one of its liabilities heading down the stretch and it sounds like Carlos Mendoza and the Mets might be at the end of the rope with Senga.

What has troubled him? Well, walks for starters, but that’s been a systemic problem for the Mets for the better part of two years. But his inability to get into favorable counts has pretty much subtracted his forkball entirely, which by far is his best pitch. His fastball and breaking pitches are flat and living in the top of the zone - just look at the replay of the batting practice session he gave the Marlins yesterday.

While catching the Phillies in the NL East is becoming more and more unlikely, the Mets are still in a solid position to qualify for the postseason. But the struggles of both Senga and LHP Sean Manaea—and even LHP David Peterson, who got shellacked on Saturday—have cast a wide array of question marks on the team’s potential postseason rotation.

With Nolan McLean dominating in his first few Major League starts, and RHP Jonah Tong pitching well in his debut—and RHP Brandon Sproat’s promotion likely becoming imminent, there’s a high likelihood the arms pitching in this team’s most important games of the season are going to be its youngest ones.

That was certainly not the plan, and while it took longer than some of us would have liked, you do have to give the organization’s decision-makers credit for finally giving the team’s top prospects an opportunity to impact this season’s playoff push.

In the meantime, Senga in particular stands out as a player who could substantially raise the Mets’ ceiling from now through the end of September and beyond if he could find his old form. His talent and stuff are both among the best in all of baseball when he’s at his peak, and the Mets now have roughly a month to get him right before they have to start considering what a postseason rotation could look like.

---

Around the League 🚩

• The Phillies signed veteran RHP Walker Buehler to a minor league contract after he was recently released by Boston

• Philadelphia allowed three runs in the final two innings to the Braves to lose their series finale on Sunday night

• Reds OF T.J. Friedl had three hits and drove in a pair of runs in the club’s 7-4 win over St. Louis

• Twins RHP Joe Ryan struck out eight Padres in seven scoreless innings to help Minnesota top San Diego, 7-2