First-year MLB pitcher Kodai Senga picked up his eighth win Monday after the right-hander held the Chicago Cubs to two runs over six innings in the New York Mets’ 11-2 clobbering.
Senga (8-6) allowed seven hits and two walks at New York’s Citi Field but had run support, especially from Pete Alonso, whose three-run first-inning home run and a two-run shot in the third off Drew Smyly (8-8) helped the Mets snap a six-game skid.
“Alonso hit a home run for us at the start and allowed me to settle into the game comfortably,” said Senga, who yielded runs when Cubs cleanup hitter Cody Bellinger singled in a run in the third and again in the fifth.
Senga was pitching in the rain after being tagged with a loss Wednesday against the Kansas City Royals. But unlike in that game, he was able to command his cutter.
“No one likes pitching in the rain … (but) in part I’m finding my rhythm little by little,” said the former ace of NPB’s Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
He admitted the departure of veteran right-handers Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer in recent trades initially left him “feeling lonely.”
“There’s no change to the fact that I live each day trying to keep the batters at bay,” he said. “The most important thing is to not get sidelined. I want to finish the season winning games.”
Two-way star Shohei Ohtani, meanwhile, went 2-for-4, doubled, stole a base and scored, but the Los Angeles Angels surrendered six runs in the ninth to blow a 3-2 lead, losing their seventh straight game, 8-3 to the San Francisco Giants.