Neil Miller /TheNYExtra.com
Mets Take First Game of Series with the Phils as Senga Once Again Dominates at Citi By Rich Coutinho/TheNYExtra.com
Kodai Senga really loves the home cooking at Citi winning his fifth game of the season shutting down a powerful Phils lineup as the Mets beat their division rivals 2-0 at Citi.
The Met rookie has tossed 30 innings at home giving up 4 earned runs which is the best by a Met pitcher in franchise history for his first five home contests. He also has the second-best home ERA in all of baseball . And his 70 strikeouts through his first 10 games puts him #3 in franchise history behind only Dwight Gooden and Nolan Ryan.
But more than that, his command of all of his pitches in a pitcher friendly ballpark like Citi has become a weapon for this team as he is the #3 pitcher on this depth chart giving Buck Showalter ace-like performances time after time. On this night, he got a Francisco Lindor solo home run and an Eduardo Escobar RBI single as the Phils could only muster 2 hits off a trio of Met arms as Adam Ottavino and David Robertson held down the fort in the final 2 frames.
That brings up an interesting stat–The Mets have now won 120 straight games when holding the lead after 8 innings. Much of that was due to Edwin Diaz but the combo of Ottavino and Robertson has been just as effective making Met opponents feel like after 8 innings the game is over. And as this team keeps getting 6 or 7 innings from the starting pitcher that is a recipe for success as a Met lead in the middle innings feels like a late inning lead before you even get to the final 6 outs.
This also speaks to the great defense that his team plays as just about every game there is one for the highlight reel. On Tuesday night, it was Brandon Nimmo who took center stage robbing Nick Castellanos of a game -tying homer. And Jeff McNeil made a great tag play that overturned a stolen base by JT Realmuto while Lindor and Eduardo Escobar made terrific defensive plays as well.
Solid pitching combined with super defense allows this team to get by with just a slice of offense and we saw that in the first game of this series. The Mets manhandled the Phils last year and I am sure they felt after this game that they were in a Citifield echo chamber reliving some 2022 tough moments.
And in my humble opinion, a game like this further illustrates the Mets have 3 aces in this rotation and when they are all healthy and pitching well, it allows this team is win even when everything is not picture perfect during a game. The ultimate test on that theory will be 2 weeks down the road when the Mets visit Atlanta but, in the meantime, this pitching staff is really showing how valuable they can be for the Mets in this 2023 season.
