NEW YORK – The Mets were running a bullpen game on Sunday afternoon at Citi Field, and it fell short in a 5-4 loss to the Phillies after Kodai Senga threw five innings in relief -- his only blemish a game-changing homer off the powerful bat of Kyle Schwarber.
It was a game in which shortstop Francisco Lindor was completely shut down -- but they could have used him, too.
“He was attempting [to play]. He had the day [off] entirely, [though],” interim manager Andy Green said.
Senga, who was demoted to the bullpen after allowing 32 runs (31 earned) in 27 2/3 innings, entered the game in the fifth inning and held Philadelphia scoreless for two innings.
Then came the seventh, and it was deflating for New York.
New York was up, 4-3, but Senga started having problems on the mound. After Justin Crawford led off with a single and Trea Turner popped up to catcher Luis Torrens, Schwarber came to the plate.
The first three pitches Senga threw to Schwarber were forkballs, his best pitch. Schwarber was behind in the count, 1-2, when Senga decided to throw a four-seam fastball to the Phillies slugger, who didn’t miss it and hit the ball over the right-center-field wall to give the Phillies a one-run lead. It was Schwarber's MLB-best 30th homer of the season.
“I mean, at that point, it's pretty much just trying to put it in play,” Schwarber said. “Senga has a wide variety of pitches and kinds of different extremes of velocity, so it's more just trying to stay as simple as you can. There’s no real, ‘Look for this, look for that.’ It’s more just trying to really simplify the approach and trying to stay in the zone, and whenever that ball does come, try to put it in play.”
So why didn’t Senga throw his money pitch, the forkball?
“Given that point in the game and where we were in the count, it didn’t have to be a fastball,” Senga said through interpreter Hiro Fujiwara. “Hindsight is 20-20. If I was going to go fastball, it was because we were ahead. Preferably, [the pitch] would have been a little higher. It didn’t have to be a strike, given the count. There is a lot to think about now that I was out of the game.”
Senga ended up throwing five innings, allowing the two runs on four hits and one walk. It was his longest outing since April 5 against the Giants.
“There was aggression and everything. I thought he used his forkball more. That is an elite weapon and you saw hitters take bad swings,” Green said. “It’s always been an elite weapon. It’s nice to see him use it in pivotal situations. I encourage him to do it. The fastball had life. He had good stuff. Depending on what our bullpen construction was going to be, we were going to use him short or long. We were pretty much forced into the long category today by who was available.”
New York’s offense was stagnant against starter Jesús Luzardo, who allowed one run in five innings. But the key was that the Mets made him throw 96 pitches, and they took advantage of the Phillies’ bullpen -- up to a point.
With the Phillies up, 3-1, and right-hander Chase Shugart on the mound, A.J. Ewing came in as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the sixth and hit a two-run homer to tie the score at 3. By the time Carson Benge came to the plate, Kyle Backhus was on the mound. Benge hit into a fielder’s choice that allowed Brett Baty to score the go-ahead run.
Yes, the Mets had a lot of traffic on the bases, but they went 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position and left 14 runners on base. The eighth inning illustrated how they couldn’t get a run across.
With right-hander Orion Kerkering on the mound for Philadelphia, New York had the bases loaded with one out. All three runners -- Baty, Juan Soto and Bo Bichette -- had reached base on walks. Unfortunately, they were left stranded after Ronny Mauricio and Francisco Alvarez struck out to end the threat.
“I saw just misses. I saw a bunch of guys take aggressive passes and just missing pitches,” Green said. “Obviously, there were a lot of times we could have hopped back in front. It was a huge swing from A.J. to [hit the home run] off the bench. We just didn’t bring guys home today.”
And it was Schwarber who burst New York’s bubble when it counted.