New York Mets Under Water in NLCS After Kodai Senga Meltdown

Any hopes the New York Mets had of successfully emulating the Los Angeles Dodgers’ blueprint disappeared within the 30 pitches Kodai Senga threw in Sunday night’s 9-0 loss in Game 1 of the NL Championship Series. 

The most lopsided postseason defeat in franchise history represented the first hiccup in 10 days for the surging Mets. 

Senga’s brief outing Sunday — when he gave up three runs while walking four and throwing just 10 pitches for strikes over 1 1/3 innings — also left the decision-making duo of general manager David Stearns and manager Carlos Mendoza open to some immediate second-guessing regarding the decision to give the 31-year-old right-hander his third start of the season in the NLCS opener. Senga has thrown just 8 2/3 innings due to shoulder and calf injuries.

“He was off — he didn’t have it,” Mendoza said. “He didn’t have the life on his fastball and a lot of balls out of (his) hand (were) non-competitive pitches, especially the split.”

The Mets rolled into Game 1 of the NLCS propelled by a ninth-inning rally in Game 3 of an NL wild card series against the Milwaukee Brewers and a convincing four-game win over the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL Division Series.

Perhaps after the season we’ll find out there was a reason why the Mets decided to go the opener route with Senga on Sunday night in Los Angeles instead of starting either Sean Manaea or Luis Severino on normal or extended rest. Manaea and Severino went a combined 23-13 with a 3.69 ERA in regular season play and have posted a 3.38 ERA in four playoff games.

And with Manaea going in today’s Game 2 and Severino lined up for Game 3, the Mets are still positioned to get more length from their starters than the Dodgers, who are going with a bullpen game this afternoon before likely turning to the struggling Walker Buehler in New York on Wednesday.

But jumping on the inefficient Senga allowed the Dodgers to land a decisive first punch in the NLCS while maintaining the momentum they’d generated in climbing back from the edge of elimination against the San Diego Padres in the NLDS.

The rout was the most lopsided shutout postseason win in franchise history for Los Angeles, which has thrown 33 consecutive scoreless innings and scored 23 unanswered runs since the Padres’ six-run second inning in Game 3 of the NLDS last Tuesday. The scoreless streak is tied for the longest in postseason play with the 1966 Baltimore Orioles, while only the 1996 Atlanta Braves have scored more unanswered runs in the playoffs. 

The Dodgers are also well-positioned to resume relying on their relievers following Jack Flaherty’s seven-inning outing Sunday — the longest start by a Los Angeles pitcher in the playoffs since Max Scherzer went seven innings in Game 3 of the 2021 NLDS against the San Francisco Giants. 

With their rotation decimated by injuries, Dodgers relievers threw 648 innings in the regular season, third-most amongst playoff teams. The bullpen accounted for 25 1/3 innings in the NLDS before Flaherty’s lengthy outing Sunday, which was just the ninth time in the last 32 games a Los Angeles starter has gone more than five frames.

“The game has certainly changed, and I think that from our perspective, I think it’s just a collective effort,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Certainly the players that were involved in all those scoreless innings have been fantastic.”