SAN FRANCISCO — The Mets might need more from Kodai Senga in the coming months, and if they can’t get that, they might want to acquire a pitcher who can give them more before Thursday’s trade deadline.
The reins were finally taken off of the right-hander Sunday in San Francisco, with the Mets allowing him to throw 92 pitches in the series finale against the Giants. However, he wasn’t efficient enough to throw more than five innings with those 92 pitches. Luckily, the Mets bailed him out in a 5-3 win to sweep the series and extend their winning streak to seven games.
Solo home runs from Ronny Mauricio and Juan Soto in the top of the seventh tied the game, and put the Mets back on top. It might have been Mauricio’s best game to date. The rookie third baseman went 4-for-4 with two doubles, two RBI and his fifth home run of the season, a splash hit over the right field wall into McCovey Cove to tie the game at 3-3.
“Incredible,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “It’s nice to see it, man. He continues to get comfortable, he continues to have really good at-bats, controlling the strike zone and then doing damage to pitches in the strike zone.”
The 24-year-old was a triple away from the cycle, and logged the first four-hit game of his career.
“It feels really good, and I’m really happy that I helped the team win,” Mauricio said.
Senga did well in minimizing damage when he had traffic on bases, but outings like this have become the norm for him this season, even before the hamstring injury that sidelined him for a month. He gave up three earned runs on four hits, including two home runs to Matt Chapman, but it was the five walks that hurt the most. He struck out only three.
This could still be a pitcher trying to find himself after missing time with an injury, especially since he was able to throw six or more innings in six of his 13 outings before the hamstring strain, and likely would have gone past six in the game where he was injured covering first base. He looked like an All-Star and was hitting a groove.
He’s gone a full seven only once this season, and he’s struggled to find the strike zone consistently in his last three outings.
“Given this is my third game back from that injury, I think it’s about time that I get in a groove or have that rhythm,” he said through translator Hiro Fujiwara. “Next outing, I hope to be able to do that.”
The Mets are in a strange situation with their rotation right now, trying to lengthen out their starters this deep into the season. It’s not ideal, but the Mets expect this to be temporary.
“I think it’s maybe still the mechanics,” Mendoza said. “This is a guy that, the more reps he gets, the better he’s going to get, so I’m not concerned. He’s too good of a pitcher, and he’ll figure it out. I think it’s just more like him coming back, and for the first time he goes five innings after coming back from the injury. We knew we would push him today, we had a number in mind, which he reached — 92 pitches, I think it was — so I want to say it was a good step in the right direction.”
Francisco Alvarez and Mauricio opened the top of the fifth inning with back-to-back doubles off of right-hander Spencer Bivens to go up 2-1. Bivens worked as the bulk guy in a bullpen game, throwing three innings, but Mauricio’s double ended his day. Former Mets left-hander Joey Lucchesi replaced him to face the top of the order. He got Brandon Nimmo out, but a ground ball advanced Mauricio to third. Lindor chopped one to shortstop Willy Adames, who fired home to get Mauricio, who was running on contact.
Mauricio was out easily, getting tagged before trying to slide head-first into home plate.
The Giants (54-52) exchanged another blow when Senga gave up a two-run shot to Chapman in the bottom of the inning. But it was the Mets (62-44) who landed the knockout punch in the seventh, with Soto and Mauricio both homering off right-hander Randy Rodriguez (3-2). The two had been talking about hitting one into the cove, and after Mauricio’s ball became a souvenir for a kayaker, Soto hoped to match that effort.
Instead, he went the other way, driving a fastball into the left field seats.
“We were going back and forth, just having fun with it,” Soto said. “We just tried to do our best. But he wanted to [hit it into the water], he told me from the beginning.”
Brandon Nimmo gave the Mets some insurance with an RBI double in the top of the ninth off right-hander Sean Hjelle to score Luisangel Acuña, who pinch-ran for Mauricio after his fourth hit of the day.
Closer Edwin Diaz navigated an eventful ninth inning, working out of a bases-loaded jam with only one out by striking out Adames and Chapman to pick up his 23rd save of the season and his second in as many nights.
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