The ghost fork is real and strong and not the Phillies’ friend

Only a week and a half after the last time we proclaimed an outing to be The Best Start of Kodai Senga’s Career, the master of the ghost fork has once again had The Best Start of His Career in the Mets’ 2-0 win over the Phillies.

In any other game, Brandon Nimmo robbing a home run from Nick Castellanos and excitedly jumping his way back towards the infield would get him all the flowers for one night, but when Kodai Senga goes seven innings allowing only one hit and striking out nine, it just doesn’t work out. As a consolation prize I made him the header image, so not all is lost for Brandon.

For the most part, the first three innings of this game weren’t very eventful, but after enough wild and wacky games, that’s not always a bad thing. Starling Marte was able to hit a single and then stole second base, which doesn’t sound like too outlandish of an accomplishment, but that stolen base was only the third that Phillies starter Ranger Suarez allowed in his entire big league career.

The fourth inning was when things started getting a bit more eventful as Brandon Nimmo’s leaping catch saved us all from at least 500 tweets connecting Nick Castellanos’ potential home run to Anthony Bass’ apology given earlier today. That home run robbery also kept the game at a 0-0 tie which is a bit more important if you get down to it, but the tie would not last for long.

Starting off the Mets’ half of the fourth inning, Francisco Lindor connected for his 10th home run of the season, driving himself in for his 40th RBI of the season and giving the Mets the lead they’d never surrender.

The Mets would only score once more during the remainder of the game when Eduardo Escobar followed a Starling Marte single and a Tommy Pham walk with an RBI grounder that rolled just far enough between Trea Turner and Bryson Stott to let a run come home. The lead may have been extended a bit further on Brandon Nimmo’s liner to right-center field one batter later, but Nick Castellanos returned the favor from earlier and made a sliding catch to maintain the 2-0 game.

Following Senga’s departure at the start of the eighth inning, Adam Ottavino and David Robertson combined to pitch two scoreless innings, bringing the Mets back one game above .500 at 28-27 and locking down the Mets’ 120th consecutive win when leading after nine innings.

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What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Kodai Senga, +43% WPA
Big Mets loser: Nobody, we are all winners today :)
Mets pitchers: - +56% WPA
Mets hitters: -6% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Francisco Lindor’s go-ahead homer, +14.1% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: J.T. Realmuto’s eighth inning single, eventually erased by a caught stealing, -6.5% WPA