Kodai Senga had a throwback performance on Saturday, but not in a positive sense.
In a reversion to the second half of last season, when the right-hander became easy work for opponents, Senga got jumped early by the A’s and couldn’t even deliver the Mets through three innings.
Sloppy defense didn’t help and Luke Weaver imploded late, but this one was mostly on Senga in his team’s 11-6 loss at Citi Field that gave the Mets a four-game losing streak.
The Mets awoke offensively after three straight dormant games but never caught the A’s following Senga’s ugly abbreviated outing.
Senga smacked his right leg in disgust with his glove as he walked toward the dugout following his removal in the third inning.
Senga lasted only 2 1/3 innings, surrendering seven earned runs on eight hits and two walks with three strikeouts before he was removed at 72 pitches.
It was a reversal from what the Mets had seen from Senga in his first two starts this season, in which he was effective against the Cardinals and Giants.
Bo Bichette ended the Mets’ scoreless drought at 17 innings with an RBI single in the first against lefty Jacob Lopez that gave the Mets a 1-0 lead.
The scoreless drought was the Mets’ second this season that lasted at least 17 innings.
Senga walked Denzel Clarke with the bases loaded in the second to give the A’s their first run. Lawrence Butler’s RBI fielder’s choice extended the lead to 2-1. Senga’s troubles started with consecutive singles by Jacob Wilson and Jeff McNeil to begin the inning before Carlos Cortes walked with one out to load the bases.
Francisco Lindor had a defensive lapse in the inning — he was caught out of position on a grounder to Marcus Semien, costing the Mets a shot at a double play on Butler’s grounder that could have ended the inning. Semien instead ran to the base after fielding the grounder.
Tyler Soderstrom smashed a two-run homer against Senga in the third, following Shea Langeliers’ leadoff double. The blast was the first Senga allowed this season.
The A’s started a second rally in the inning. Wilson singled – a ball that Semien missed with a bare hand — and McNeil hit a grounder off Mark Vientos’ glove for a single. Cortes delivered the knockout blow to Senga with a three-run homer, burying the Mets in a 7-1 hole.
Bichette’s first Mets homer cut the deficit. With Lindor aboard, Bichette hit a shot to right that just cleared the right-field fence. The two-run homer gave Bichette a team-leading nine RBIs.
Francisco Alvarez’s blast leading off the bottom of the sixth sliced the Mets’ deficit to 7-4. The homer was Alvarez’s team-leading fourth this season. Before the inning was complete, Carson Benge scored the Mets’ fifth run. Benge walked and scored on Brett Baty’s sacrifice fly following Semien’s single.
Jorge Polanco homered an inning later to pull the Mets within one run. The Mets put the tying and go-ahead runs on base before the inning was complete, but Benge and Semien were retired in succession to end the threat.
Weaver’s second straight rough performance sank the Mets in the eighth. Weaver surrendered a three-run blast to Soderstrom after Langeliers’ RBI single gave the A’s a two-run lead.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
