Senga gets Game 1 nod against Dodgers; Manaea in G2

NEW YORK -- For the first time in weeks, given some rare rest heading into the National League Championship Series, the Mets had the luxury of setting up their rotation exactly how they wanted.

They chose Kodai Senga for Game 1.

Senga will start Sunday’s series opener against the Dodgers, marking just his third appearance in a year marred by injury. Manager Carlos Mendoza, who made the announcement Saturday at Citi Field before boarding a plane bound for Los Angeles, said he expects Senga to last around three innings.

“From the beginning, we wanted to put our guys in what we felt was the best position to have success,” Mendoza said. “That was the case for Senga. We wanted to keep it as close as possible to his routine.”

Notoriously regimented in his preparation, Senga typically pitches with five or six days of rest between starts, as opposed to four or five for most starters. He’ll be operating on seven days’ rest for Game 1, after pitching two innings against the Phillies in NL Division Series Game 1.

“More so than being glad or happy, there's definitely tension inside myself compared to the other pitchers that have fought throughout the entire year,” Senga said through an interpreter. “I haven’t been able to do that. So I really need to be able to contribute, continue to contribute, and do my job in the following games.”

Senga said he expects to be ready to start Game 5 as well.

Left-hander Sean Manaea will start Game 2 Monday on an extra day of rest. Although Mendoza did not announce the rest of his NLCS rotation, he’s likely to go with Luis Severino in Game 3 and Jose Quintana in Game 4. Part of the motivation for starting Senga in Game 1, Mendoza said, was giving Severino some additional recovery time. The right-hander has already thrown 104 2/3 innings more than he did last year and holds a 5.14 ERA over his last five outings.

“If there’s somebody that needs that extra day or extra rest, it’s Sevy, especially where he’s at with innings and the workload and all that,” Mendoza said. “So we feel really good about it. And he’s good with it.”

Senga, 31, strained the posterior capsule in his right shoulder in the early days of Spring Training, knocking him out for the entire first half of the season. As he attempted to rehab the injury, Senga suffered through triceps discomfort and nerve inflammation. He finally made it back to pitch July 26 against the Braves, but Senga badly strained his left calf in that game and did not return until NLDS Game 1. Not yet stretched out as a starter, he threw two innings and 31 pitches in that one, allowing a leadoff homer to Kyle Schwarber but nothing else the rest of the way.

He should be good for around 45-50 pitches in NLCS Game 1.

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“There’s not a number I have in mind,” Senga said. “I’m going until they take the ball away from me, and I’m going to go at it 100 percent until then.”

The Mets’ best pitcher in 2023, Senga went 12-7 with a 2.98 ERA and 202 strikeouts over 166 1/3 innings. That was his first season of a five-year, $75 million contract after spending 11 years pitching for the Softbank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball.

Senga has seen the Dodgers once before, limiting them to one run over six innings last July 15. A month later, he faced then-Angels star Shohei Ohtani, who reached base in all three of his plate appearances against him.

“A lot of great hitters in the lineup,” Senga said of the Dodgers. “If I leave a ball over the plate, they’re probably going to hammer it.”

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Behind Senga in Game 1, the Mets have a host of options -- most notably right-hander Tylor Megill and lefty David Peterson, who are capable of delivering length out of the bullpen. Peterson said he is preparing to throw multiple innings, much as he did in throwing three scoreless against the Phillies in NLDS Game 1.

“If you look at obviously where Kodai’s at, we’re going to need some length,” Peterson said. “I was one of the guys the last time he started that was able to give some length. I’ll be ready for that if that’s what it calls for, and I’ll be ready for something shorter if that’s what we need.”