LOS ANGELES — The Mets put Kodai Senga in a position to have postseason success, giving him all the time he needed during two regular-season injured list stints to get healthy. They gave him optimal time to get healthy for the postseason. But then time ran out.
The Senga experiment might have come to an end after a disastrous start in Game 1 of the NLCS. The Mets were hoping to get the right-hander through three innings, instead he gave the Los Angeles Dodgers three runs over 1 1/3 innings, leading to a 9-0 loss Sunday night at Dodger Stadium.
Los Angeles might be where movie magic is made, and the Mets have been on a magical postseason ride with a movie-like feel, but they may want to recast the part of their staff ace for the next six games. Senga looked uncompetitive, completely unable to find the strike zone, putting the Mets in a 2-0 hole in the first, and a 3-0 hole by the time he exited.
Out of 30 pitches, only 10 were strikes. His velocity topped out at 94.5 and he got exactly no swings and misses.
Senga does not appear ready for postseason pitching. And why would he be? He came into the game having pitched only 8 1/3 competitive innings this calendar year. He can throw all of the simulated innings he wants, but that’s not going to get him into midseason form, or even postseason form. Senga might have been able to step in and give the Mets two big innings in Philadelphia during the NLDS to help a bullpen that was taxed from a condensed schedule, but with a pennant now on the line, the Mets can’t afford to let Senga pitch through the rust in a Championship Series.
Reed Garrett and David Peterson did what they could to mop up, but the Dodgers’ lineup length was tough to contend with and the Mets gave them no run support.
Everything that went right for the Mets in the first two rounds of the playoffs went wrong in Game 1 of the NLCS. Right-hander Jack Flaherty no-hit the Mets through four innings. With the Mets down 6-0, Jesse Winker led off the fifth with a single to right and Jose Iglesias flared one into left-center that Winker misjudged. He overran second base, getting caught between second and third.
Flaherty, a Los Angeles native, held the Mets scoreless over seven innings, allowing only two hits, walking two and striking out six. The Dodgers haven’t allowed a run in 33 innings.
Garrett relieved Senga with one out and two on in the second. Francisco Alvarez caught Shohei Ohtani stealing for the second out, becoming only the fourth catcher this season to throw out the NL MVP frontrunner. It snapped a streak of 36 stolen bases in a row, with his last caught-stealing coming July 22.
Garrett kept the score at 3-0 with 1 1/3 innings of work. Peterson got the last out in the third, but when the bottom of the order set the table in the fourth inning, the top cleared the bases. Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez make for a formidable top four.
The left-hander, who hadn’t given up a run through 6 1/3 postseason innings until Sunday, was charged with three. Jose Butto gave up three in the bottom of the eighth, ending any hopes of one of those signature late-game comebacks for the Mets.
