With Christian Scott heading to the 10-day injured list due to a right hip impingement, the Mets needed to figure out who would start Tuesday’s game against the Reds in Cincinnati.
Carlos Mendoza told reporters ahead of Monday’s game that the club will turn to Kodai Senga, who has been out since the end of April with lumbar spine inflammation.
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“Kodai Senga is going to start for us tomorrow, and is going to be followed by Nolan McLean on Wednesday,” Mendoza said.
Senga last pitched in the big leagues on April 26 against the Colorado Rockies, but struggled mightily while on the active roster, going 0-4 with a 9.00 ERA over five starts.
The 33-year-old has since made four rehab starts across all three levels of the minors, including six strong innings with five strikeouts on June 11 for Double-A Binghamton.
“We’ve been saying that we wanted to see results, which we had with his last outing,” Mendoza said. “But with him, not only the result, just how he feels after he pitches. While we were waiting for him to throw his bullpen yesterday, he was scheduled to throw his bullpen yesterday in Citi Field, which he ended up throwing it. Felt good today and then we decided to go with him.
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“He’s ready to go. He’s telling us that he feels 100 precent. He was on board with, ‘Hey, if you want guys want me to go in the minor leagues and pitch again, I’ll do it, but I’m ready to compete at the big league level.’ For him to be very vocal about it is a good sign.”
Overall during his rehab assignment, Senga went 0-1 with 17 strikeouts, a 4.00 ERA, and a 1.17 WHIP over 18.0 innings.
Senga returning and being a productive arm would be a huge boost for New York as the starting rotation has been in flux over the last month. Clay Holmes went down with a fractured fibula on May 15, Sean Manaea and David Peterson have recently swapped bullpen and opener roles, and Tobias Myers is back up from a brief stint in the minors to start Monday night’s game vs. the Reds.
