Ghost Fork Was Spooky

Entering the 2023 season, the biggest question mark in the rotation was Kodai Senga. We knew he was good based upon what he did in Japan, but how good he was going to be is ultimately what will determine how good of a rotation and by extension a team the New York Mets will be.

It may not seem this way, but the Mets have had more Japanese players in their history than any other team. Of course, as we saw with Kazuo Matsui, the Mets haven’t always had the best luck with Japanese imports. Of course, part of that was the Mets creating unrealistic expectations and flat out ignoring advice on how to help those players adapt to Major League Baseball.

Jeff Wilpon is gone, and the Mets are run completely differently under Steve Cohen. Perhaps, that is part of the reason why we did not hear any of the old anxiety related to the Mets previous failures with Japanese players. Seeing Senga on the mound for his first game, we may never hear it again.

Things did not start well for him. He allowed a hit to Luis Arraez, threw a wild pitch, and allowed an RBI double to Jorge Soler. That’s as disastrous a start to your career as you can get. One run was in without an out. Fortunately, the Mets did score two for him in the top of the first, so the lead had not evaporated.

That seemed like a technicality as he then walked Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Avisail Garcia to load the bases. That brought up Yuli Gurriel. Bases loaded and no outs. It was then we first saw Senga release that ghost split as a true weapon.

Senga then came back and struck out Jesus Sanchez. Again, it was that ghost fork. That Miami Marlins rally was fading as quickly as that ghost fork. Senga would need some help from his defense as Starling Marte made a great catch in right to end the inning.

The Marlins missed their only chance as they would only collect one more hit and walk against Senga in his 5 1/3 innings of work. If he had not needed to throw 36 pitches in the first innings, he might’ve gone deeper. The fact he was able to go deeper into the game is a testament to how he just flat out embarrassed the Marlins hitters who literally had no chance against that ghost fork.

Overall, Senga struck out eight, and the Mets went on to win 5-1. More than that, Senga showed us how great he could be. While it is far too early to talk about these things, perhaps he could be the ace of this staff. Yes, he and that ghost fork were that good on Sunday. We will see just how good it is the rest of the year.

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