The Mets didn’t do much in a loss to the Marlins, but Kodai Senga looked pretty good.
Good teams are always going to lose some games to bad teams over the course of a 162-game season, but the first one is always particularly annoying. And the Mets’ lineup was mostly dormant as they suffered their first loss to the Marlins in this young season, a game that saw Miami win by a 4-2 score.
Kodai Senga got off to a rough start, as he served up a two-run home run to Kyle Stowers, one of many Marlins whose names you probably didn’t know before this series began, in the bottom of the first. But he settled in rather nicely from there, putting up zeroes in the second and third innings.
The Mets scored their first run in the top of the second on a solo home run by Brandon Nimmo, and they tied the game with their second run on a Francisco Lindor single in the top of the third.
Unfortunately, that was it for the offense on the night. Senga gave up two more runs in the bottom of the fourth, both of which were unearned following an error by Lindor—his second of the night—which allowed the first batter of the inning to reach base safely before Senga recorded back-to-back outs. But with that runner still on first and two outs, Senga issued a walk before serving up a hard-hit double to someone named Graham Pauley. The Marlins were up by two again, and that was more than enough.
Senga went on to pitch a scoreless fifth, and he finished his first start of the year with eight strikeouts, one walk, the aforementioned four runs, and three hits allowed. He looked better than the overall stat line would suggest—even if the strikeouts and walks jump off the page in a good way.
Max Kranick threw three scoreless innings in relief, saving the rest of the bullpen and looking good in the process. He only struck out one, but he induced a lot of easy outs, and he’s now thrown 3.2 scoreless innings out of the Mets’ bullpen to start the season.
As for the offense, well, here’s hoping they wake up again in the series finale tomorrow. No single game or series loss in April is going to be catastrophic, but the Mets really shouldn’t be losing any series to the Marlins this year.
SB Nation GameThreads
Box scores
Win Probability Added
FanGraphs
Big Mets winner: Brandon Nimmo, +10.9% WPA
Big Mets loser: Kodai Senga, -20.1% WPA
Mets pitchers: -13.0% WPA
Mets hitters: -37.0% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Brandon Nimmo hits a solo home run in the second, +9.4% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Graham Pauley hits a two-run double in the fourth, -22.2% WPA