Kodai Senga spun a gem in West Sacramento on Sunday, going seven scoreless innings while allowing just four hits with four strikeouts and a pair of walks in the Mets’ 8-0 victory over the Athletics on Sunday.
The rubber-game win clinches the Mets’ (10-5) fourth consecutive series victory after dropping two of three to the Houston Astros to start the season.
Senga became the first Met to pitch seven innings this season, doing so on just 79 pitches while lowering his ERA to 1.06. Relievers AJ Minter and Max Kranick allowed just a single hit over two scoreless innings to clinch New York’s third shutout in the last 15 games.
By comparison, the Mets did not post their first shutout until the 92nd game of the 2024 season.
Catcher Luis Torrens continues to fill in admirably for Francisco Alvarez, who is working his way back from hand surgery. The backup backstop collected three hits with a pair of RBI.
Mark Vientos had his best game of the season yet with a pair of RBI on a double and a bases-loaded walk.
The Mets did most of their damage against the Athletics’ bullpen after being limited to just one run on four hits by a familiar face in Luis Severino. The veteran righty who helped anchor New York’s rotation during their run to the NLCS last season went 5.2 innings with six strikeouts and three walks.
Torrens got the Mets on the board in the sixth with a two-out RBI single that scored Pete Alonso from third.
Francisco Lindor doubled the Mets’ lead in the seventh when he doubled in Luisangel Acuna from first. After A’s reliever Noah Murdock intentionally walked Juan Soto and issued another free pass to Brandon Nimmo with two outs, Vientos was walked on five pitches to give the Mets a 3-0 lead.
Tyrone Taylor, filling in for the injured Jose Siri, tripled with one out in the eighth and scored on Jose Leclerc’s balk to make it a four-run game.
The Mets put the hammer down in the top of the ninth with four more runs to put things out of reach. Vientos doubled Nimmo home, and he came around to score on Torrens’ ground-rule double.
Brett Baty, who has struggled mightily at the major-league level once again, tripled out to center to score Torrens from first. He came in to score when Taylor’s grounder to short was booted.
