Mets' Kodai Senga suffers worst start of career in loss to Athletics: 'He just didn't have it today'

After an impressive spring and solid start to the season, it looked as if Kodai Senga was getting back to what made him such a dominant force for the Mets.

However, the ineffective Senga emerged in Saturday's 11-6 loss to the Athletics on Saturday as the right-hander had his worst start as a major leaguer. Senga allowed a career-high seven runs on eight hits, two walks across 2.1 innings.

What plagued Senga was his lack of control, as only 40 of his 72 pitches went for strikes.

"The biggest thing is I wasn’t able to control many pitches near the strike zone or over the plate," Senga said of his outing through the team interpreter.

"He didn’t have much," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said of Senga. "Starts with fastball command and he just didn’t have it. He kept going to that sinker to get back in counts or get a strike, but he didn’t have a feel for his pitches… Overall, just getting behind because the command wasn’t there."

Senga, who has become known for letting bad starts snowball on him, attributed his lack of control to a "slight" mechanical issue, but he felt great physically.

In spring and in his first two starts, Senga's fastball was in the high 90s. On Saturday, he was hovering around 93-94. The Mets skipper acknowledged the dip in velocity, but when asked whether Senga was affected by having to pitch on regular rest, which Senga hasn't done consistently since coming to the majors, Mendoza pointed out the off day gave his starter an extra day of rest; he just didn't have it on Saturday.

And when velocity isn't there, location becomes more important and the lack of it played a big part in the game-altering third inning. With the Mets only down 2-1, Shea Langeliers doubled and Tyler Soderstrom homered to give the A's a 4-1 lead. Consecutive singles and a one-out home run by Carlos Cortes capped off the five-run inning and Senga's day.

In the second and third innings -- where all seven runs were scored -- Senga had to throw 54 combined pitches. He was asked if those long innings made it difficult to find a rhythm. Senga didn't use it as an excuse, but instead wants to learn from the start.

"I think it’s tough to have back-to-back innings with high pitch counts," Senga said. "Not every outing is going to be smooth sailing. Some outings are going to be tough. Probably going to have, in a long season, stuff like this is going to happen. I’m going to reflect on this the next time I go back out there so that it doesn’t happen again or it’s better the next time out."

"I didn’t feel like I was going to have a rough outing," Senga added. "I thought I felt good. A lot of unfortunate things came and didn’t stop. That’s how the outing went."

The Mets offense would awaken to cut the A's lead to just one run, but the bullpen couldn't hold down the Athletics long enough to complete the comeback as New York dropped their fourth game in a row. It was a shame considering Mets pitching has been very solid, and the offense hasn't pulled their weight. They pulled it on Saturday, but Senga put them too far behind the eight ball to pick up the win.

"Times like this, it’s important as a starting pitcher to get the team off on the right foot," Senga said. "I wasn’t able to do that today. It’s very regretful on that end."