Kodai Senga shows promising stuff despite New York Mets loss

Kodai Senga was not at the peak of his abilities in his start on Tuesday, but still looked promising for the year despite the Mets' eventual loss.

Apr 1, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; New York Mets starting pitcher Kodai Senga (34) delivers a pitch against the Miami Marlins during the first inning at loanDepot Park. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

On a night when Major League Baseball saw its first complete game shutout of the year, two other top-tier pitchers faced off in Miami to varying levels of success.

The New York Mets turned to Kodai Senga for his first start of the year. Drawing Sandy Alcántara and the Miami Marlins, the pitching matchup showed promise even if the offenses looked to be vastly different.

That was on paper, anyway, and it was Miami's offense that got the upper hand in a 4-2 contest. However, Senga did show the promising stuff that helped lead him to a National League All-Star nod in 2023 on the strength of a 2.98 ERA across 166.1 innings.

The final line for Kodai Senga in his 2025 season debut pic.twitter.com/NmUvDTb1Kp

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) April 2, 2025

Senga only allowed four baserunners in his five innings of work while striking out eight. The Marlins scored four runs on Senga, though two of those were unearned after an uncharacteristic inning from Francisco Lindor that saw the shortstop commit two errors.

Read More: Mets' Francisco Lindor shoulders the blame for costly errors in loss to Marlins

The eight strikeouts were key for Senga. The starter tallied 202 in 2023, good enough for a 29.1% strikeout rate. It has been much higher than that since, though it has come in a small sample size. Through his lone regular season start in 2024 and his first start this year, Senga has struck out 17 batters across 10.1 innings for a 42.5% strikeout rate.

The forkball, nicknamed the "Ghost Fork", worked as advertised on Tuesday. Senga leaned heavily on it, throwing it 20 times out of his 77 pitches; of the 14 swings it drew, eight were whiffs. He ended the night with 16 total whiffs for a 41% whiff rate, and 10 called strikes for a 34% CSW rate.

Kodai Senga, Disappearing 81mph Ghost Fork (slow mo). 👻⚔️ pic.twitter.com/RtxxVHr5A1

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 1, 2025

There is a lot to build on for the season after Senga's first start. Of course, the best news of all is that he made it through unscathed. The stuff still being electric is also a major boon for his potential performance for the rest of the year.

It is still highly unlikely that Senga qualifies for the ERA title after throwing only 5.1 innings in the regular season last year. But for the innings that he does throw, having that stuff play up like it has to this point in his career will be huge for the Mets.

It has not been officially announced yet, but Senga's next start should either come over the weekend against the Toronto Blue Jays or early next week against the Marlins again. Regardless of the team he faces, it will be another must-watch game if only to see how many whiffs the Ghost Fork draws.