Mets drop series opener against the Twins

Kodai Senga battled through six innings, but surprise surprise, the bullpen was the reason the Mets lost 5-2 to the Twins.

With Spencer Strider’s Cy Young case looking weaker after a terrible start, Kodai Senga had the opportunity to firmly enter the race for the award. While he did not firmly improve his chances he did nothing to hurt them either. His command was off all night as he walked five batters, but in Jacob deGrom-like fashion he managed to limit the damage even without his best stuff. He gave up just two runs in six innings and struck out five. With those five strikeouts he is now second on the all-time list for strikeouts by a rookie pitcher.

When Senga departed the game it was tied at two apiece but that quickly changed. Sean Reid-Foley had been solid since returning from Tommy John surgery but he completely fell apart. He only pitched two thirds of an inning but was let down a bit by a throwing error by Francisco Alvarez. He was charged with three runs but one scored when Grant Hartwig replaced him and allowed an inherited runner to score.

As for the offense they were shut down by Dallas Keuchel and the Minnesota bullpen. Francisco Lindor supplied all of the offense with a double that scored two in the fourth that briefly gave the Mets the lead. Buck Showalter raised some eyebrows earlier in the week when he mentioned not playing Brett Baty against lefties when the team faced contending teams. Baty was in the lineup and unfortunately did nothing to quell any doubts his manager might have about putting him in the lineup. He went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and looked overmatched at the plate.

All things considered it was just another run of the mill Mets loss in a season filled with them. Oh and Carlos Correa had a big night at the plate including a home run against Senga because of course he did.

Box scores

ESPN
MLB

SB Nation GameThreads

Amazin’ Avenue
Twinkie Town

Win Probability Added

Fangraphs.com

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Pete Alonso, +14% WPA
Big Mets loser: Sean Reid-Foley, -30% WPA
Mets pitchers: -25.5% WPA
Mets hitters: -24.5% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Pete Alonso double in fourth
Teh sux0rest play: Carlos Correa home run in fourth