PHILADELPHIA — New York Mets right-hander Kodai Senga will start Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday against the Philadelphia Phillies after missing the last two months with a calf injury.
The 31-year-old Senga, who was the Mets’ best pitcher last season, hasn’t thrown since July 29, when he left his only outing of the season after 5 1/3 innings with a calf strain. Shoulder and triceps injuries had sidelined Senga for the season’s first four months.
Senga and Mets manager Carlos Mendoza were coy when asked how deep into the game Senga could pitch. Senga said Mendoza and Mets pitching coach Jeremy Hefner would decide.
“I’m ready for whatever,” Senga said. “If they say 10 pitches, I’m all in for 10 pitches. If they say 200, I’m in for 200.”
Senga’s return is a welcome sight for a Mets team whose run to the division series depleted its pitching. New York played a doubleheader Monday — clinching a playoff spot in the first game — and followed with games the next three days in Milwaukee. The final one, a dramatic 4-2 come-from-behind win punctuated with Pete Alonso‘s three-run ninth-inning home run, continued a magical run from a team that in early June was 24-35.
Senga had hoped to return toward the end of the regular season but was shut down after triceps tightness ended his Sept. 22 minor league rehabilitation start. He continued working at the Mets’ Florida complex and said he was told Wednesday that if the Mets beat the Brewers and he was healthy, he would start Game 1.
“We’ve been through it a whole year with him,” Mendoza said. “And the times that he goes out there and faces hitters or throws a lot of bullpens and he’s not feeling right, he’s always letting us know that. And that wasn’t the case in this situation. He was the one that approached us and he wanted to know what we were thinking in case, you know, we were here in the division series or potential NLCS.”
Senga has worked into pitching shape with live batting-practice sessions, and in the last one, Mendoza said, “He threw a lot.”
In his first season with the Mets, Senga was one of the best pitchers in baseball, putting up a 2.99 ERA over 166 1/3 innings and striking out 202. His vaunted “ghost fork,” a devastating split-fingered fastball, was among the best swing-and-miss pitches in the game last season.
New York is banking on that version of Senga returning and will need it — former Mets and Phillies ace Zack Wheeler, a postseason standout, is scheduled to oppose him in Game 1, adding to the degree of difficulty already inherent in going from live BP to more than 40,000 fans screaming at Citizens Bank Park.
“You can get your stuff right in the bullpen you can kind of get all that dialed in,” said Mets starter David Peterson, who recorded the save in the wild card-clinching win and could piggyback with Senga in Game 1. “But I think we’ve been playing a lot of high-leverage games for quite a while now, and so I think just coming back into an atmosphere like that, getting back up to game speed is something that’s going to be a challenge when you’re coming back like that.
“But I have no doubt of the work he’s put in and the way he’s gotten himself prepared he’s ready for the challenge.”
Senga said before he was ready to start, he needed to “get my physical and mental state up and ready” — and that once he did, his previous communication with the team eased the path toward a return.
“If I thought it was difficult I wouldn’t be ready,” Senga said. “So I’m ready for (Game 1). And however much I can control my body and control how the game goes is going to be big.”
