Kodai Senga worked himself around trouble in a solid outing and Brett Baty cranked a solo home run in the seventh to give the Mets a 2-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night at Citi Field.
Senga and the four men who followed out of the bullpen gave the visitors chances, but held them to 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position to leave 12 men on base. New York improved to 28-15 on the season and 17-4 in Queens. The Mets are now 10-8 in one-run games.
Here are the takeaways…
– Senga bookended a 1-2-3 first by getting Adam Frazier swinging on a forkball in the dirt and blowing a fastball past Bryan Reynolds.
Ke'Bryan Hayes would jump on a fastball on the inside corner for a one-out triple to left center in the second, benefiting from Tyrone Taylor losing his feet on the track. But the righty got a pop-up to shallow center, tracked down by Baty (playing second base), and Jared Triolo to wave at a forkball in the dirt to strand the runner.
After a one-out single to right, Frazier slapped a ball to third that ate up Mark Vientos, skipping off the ground into his chest to put runners at second and third. Senga again got out of trouble, making Isiah Kiner-Falefa look foolish on a forkball in the dirt before inducing a grounder to Vientos to strand two.
Senga put himself in trouble again with a walk and a single to cover the corners with nobody out. But the Houdini act continued as Alexander Canario, Triolo, and Ji HwanBae all went down swinging at the forkball. A one-out walk and a wild pitch put another Pirate in scoring position in the fifth, but Senga got a groundout to third and a lazy fly to right. Through 15 outs, Pittsburgh was 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position with six left on base.
A two-out single in the sixth brought Carlos Mendoza to the mound to take Senga’s temperature, but the righty got one more batter. Unfortunately, Triolo smacked a ball that went through the webbing of Vientos’ glove to put runners at second and third on the double.
Reed Garrett entered and had trouble, walking Bae on four-straight to load the bases and got ahead of Henry Davis 0-2, but walked in the tying run, missing on four straight. A weak grounder to first ended the jam and left the bases loaded.
Senga's final line: 5.2 innings, one run, six hits, two walks, seven strikeouts on 102 pitches (68 strikes). His ERA jumped to 1.22 on the year.
– Juan Soto rocketed a ball right up the middle for a hit in the first inning. He promptly swiped second base…