WEST SACRAMENTO — Finally, the Mets have their ace back, and he pitched every bit like one to help the Mets finish off a series against the A’s.
Kodai Senga tossed seven scoreless innings, the first pitcher to do so for the Mets this season. The right-hander dueled former Mets starter Luis Severino for more than five innings before Luis Torrens hit an RBI single to give Senga some run support. The Mets went on to win, 8-0, taking the series from the A’s, 2-1.
The Mets (10-5) needed Senga to go deep, and he delivered. A team dinner was held after the Mets arrived in Sacramento, and with the starting rotation sitting together, they discussed their desire to give the team more length in their outings. Until Sunday, only David Peterson had pitched more than five innings, tossing six twice.
The bullpen has been stellar so far, but the starters wanted to pull their weight, especially with the Sacramento series being the first in a series of four without an off day.
Senga was extremely efficient against a lineup that played tougher than it looked on paper, throwing seven innings for the first time since Sept. 1, 2023. In what was arguably the Mets’ best pitching performance of the season’s first 15 games, the right-hander allowed four hits and two walks, striking out four in the win (2-1). He faced relatively little traffic on the bases and benefitted from two double plays.
Severino brought the heat for the A’s (6-10) with a fastball that sat around 98 MPH. He pitched a two-on, none-out situation in the first with the help of a double play. He struck out three in the second, working around a two-out single by Torrens, and with two on and two out in the fourth, he battled Brett Baty for 10 pitches before striking out the scuffling infielder.
Severino was fired up coming off the mound and was nearly out of the sixth unscathed when the Mets finally broke through. Alonso worked a leadoff walk before getting to third on two ground-ball outs, putting him in position to score easily from third on the single by Torrens.
Severino lasted 5 1/3, giving up only one run on four hits, walking three and striking out six in his third loss of the season (0-3).
With Francisco Alvarez working his way back from March hamate bone surgery, Torrens has been getting the bulk of the playing time behind the plate. A forearm contusion sidelined him last week, but he returned to action Friday, going 1-for-5 with an RBI double.
He went 3-for-4 with two RBI, a double and a walk Sunday, coming up big in the sixth against his old battery-mate Severino, and doubling over the head of center fielder Seth Brown in the ninth.
After chasing Severino from the game in the sixth, the Mets steadily added more offense with two runs in the seventh and one in the eighth before exploding for four runs in the top of the night, effectively pushing the game out of reach for the A’s. They took two runs off right-hander Noah Murdock and one off Jose Leclerc, with both right-handers lasting only 2/3 of an inning, and four off right-hander Jason Alexander.
The Mets capitalized on sloppy defense from the Athletics to give themselves a large cushion.
Left-hander A.J. Minter pitched a scoreless eighth and with the four-run inning, the Mets had closer Edwin Diaz stand down and used Max Kranick instead. Kranick retired the side in order to secure the Mets’ ninth win in their last 12 games.
