Despite a disastrous start in Los Angeles, the Mets are ready to use Kodai Senga in the NLCS once again. The right-hander is scheduled to pitch Friday in Game 5 against the Dodgers, but the Mets are still discussing how they want to use him.
“At what capacity? We’ll see,” manager Carlos Mendoza said Wednesday ahead of the Mets’ Game 3 matchup against the Dodgers.
Though the Mets have to do some advanced planning with the pitching, Mendoza is managing on a day-by-day basis, managing as if every game is an elimination game. Managing this way requires the best pitchers to be available in the bullpen, which means having left-hander David Peterson available for either Games 3 or 4. There is an outside chance that Peterson starts Game 5, but the Mets are anticipating needing him in relief in one of the next two games, so they’re also considering right-hander Tylor Megill as a Game 5 starter.
Ostensibly, the Mets could get 3-4 innings of Megill and 3-4 of Senga, bridging the gap to the high-leverage relievers.
How the Mets deploy Senga will depend on what happens in Games 3 and 4.
“It’s baseball, there are a lot of times where you’re going in and you say, ‘We want to try to stay away from this,’ but you might have no choice, right?” Mendoza said. “I think the biggest thing is that we got to give him the time that he needs to get ready. So again, I could see him starting that game, but it depends on how we get there.”
Senga informed the Mets that he’s willing to pitch out of the bullpen and has done so in Japan. However, he’s extremely finicky when it comes to his routines and his preparation, and working out of the bullpen could disrupt that routine. Scheduling him for Friday would allow him to stay on his routine in between starts. He threw a bullpen session Wednesday afternoon at Citi Field, which would indicate that he will proceed as needed.
The Mets have to take some precautions and give him extra time to warm up in the bullpen. They wouldn’t have him warm up and then decide not to bring him into the game as they’ve done in recent games with other relievers. With managers needing a quicker hook in the postseason than in the regular season, it’s not uncommon for relievers to warm up and then sit back down.
But the Mets have a template with how they use Peterson, Megill and Jose Butto. Mendoza typically has a rough plan for them in games where he knows they will be used, and calls the bullpen well ahead of time to get them started before coming into games.
“We already had that conversation with him,” Mendoza said. “He said he pitched in Japan out of the bullpen, so it’s not going to be the first time he’s done that if we ask him to do so. But yes, it’s kind of like the same treatment that we’re giving Megill and Petey, where we’re going to have to be extra careful.”
Extra careful and extra quick to pull him in case he looks like he did Sunday at Chavez Ravine.
Senga looked downright uncompetitive. Mendoza and the Mets didn’t even try to sugarcoat it. Having only been able to pitch twice this season, Senga is essentially still in spring training. He pitches a few innings and gets his work in, building up little by little each outing.
“That’s reasonable to say, but this is a guy that knows himself better than anybody and at times, if something is off, you’re going to see games like that,” Mendoza said. “But if he’s right, he could be lights out. So you take that chance again.”
It’s a high-risk, high-reward scenario. If Senga’s mechanics are off again and his velocity is down, it could prove costly. It was the primary reason the Mets lost in Game 1, and with the Mets only three wins away from clinching a pennant, the risk is even larger.
But if Senga looks anything like the pitcher that earned Cy Young Award votes last season, even if it’s only for a few innings, then the risk is worth the reward.
“He’s an ace,” Mendoza said. “This is a guy that we saw making a start against the Braves and he was lights-out. He pitched against the Phillies and was throwing 96-97. It was one pitch that got him, but other than that, he was pretty good. We’re reacting off one outing that he didn’t have it. So I’m very confident giving him the ball.”
