Mets face pivotal week after misthrow, Senga injury
A routine sixth-inning play at Citi Field on June 12 triggered questions about New York’s resilience as Kodai Senga left with a right hamstring strain, even as the team opened the year with one of baseball’s best starts.
New York’s Mets entered a week that could define their season with a moment in which routine became pivotal. In the sixth inning at Citi Field, with the Mets clinging to a 4-0 lead, Pete Alonso’s throw to Kodai Senga was off target on a grounder by the Nationals’ C.J. Abrams. Senga leaped to take the ball and beat Abrams to the bag, but the play ended with the right-hander crumpling to the infield grass with a right hamstring strain.
That sequence underscored the Mets’ fast start: Senga led the majors in ERA at 1.47 and was among the NL Cy Young front-runners two and a half months into the year. New York’s rotation carried a 2.83 team ERA, with starters at 2.79, well ahead of the next-best marks, including the Giants at 3.17 and the Tigers at 3.03.
By midseason, the injury cast a shadow over a team that had built a cushion in the standings. The Mets had been 45-24 and led the majors in wins as they went into that stretch, with Senga’s 1.47 ERA a centerpiece of a rotation that had delivered the league’s best numbers. The hamstring setback raised questions about how the club would navigate the schedule without one of its top performers while trying to sustain the pace it had set in April and May.
The play has become a focal point of a season defined by elite starting pitching and a deep bullpen. With Senga sidelined by the injury, the Mets would lean on the rest of their rotation and bullpen as they faced a week that was described in some circles as a historic test for a team hoping to preserve its early-season momentum. The club approached the next games with a focus on rotation depth and bullpen reliability, aiming to continue the emergency-provision style of pitching that had carried them to the top of the standings earlier in the year.