Kodai Senga was a ghost of his usual self for the first few innings Saturday before he finally figured things out, but by then it was too late.
On another day, the Mets’ lineup might have rescued the right-hander and turned Senga’s start into a footnote.
On Saturday, however, hard-hit balls against Adam Wainwright and the Cardinals’ bullpen became outs and the two early home runs Senga allowed couldn’t be undone in the Mets’ 5-3 loss at Citi Field that snapped their two-game winning streak.
Senga, with the Cardinals largely laying off his signature “ghost forkball,” allowed four earned runs on five hits and one walk over 6 ²/₃ innings for a second straight disappointing home start.
Sandwiched in between was a gem at Pittsburgh on June 10, in which he allowed one unearned run over seven innings.
But the Mets, with a short bullpen as Drew Smith remains suspended through next weekend for violating MLB’s foreign substance rules, could at least be thankful Senga got them into the seventh inning.
The Cardinals had only one baserunner against Senga after the third inning, and that came on an error.
“I think mechanically in the first half, in the first three innings, I was a little off,” Senga said through his interpreter. “As the game went on I made adjustments on the fly.”
Wainwright pitched to hard contact, but the Mets couldn’t capitalize.
The right-hander allowed three earned runs on seven hits and two walks over 6 ¹/₃ innings.
The 41-year-old Wainwright, who has said he plans to retire after this season, is 5-0 in his last six starts at Citi Field.
The last-place Cardinals, who snapped a six-game losing streak, gave Wainwright a 4-1 lead in the third inning, after which the Mets tried to play catch-up.
“He’s the kind of guy, if you get behind it kind of plays into the way that he’s pitching now,” manager Buck Showalter said. “You are trying to do too much and you start swinging at some borderline pitches, which is what he’s trying to do.”
Brandon Nimmo slammed Wainwright’s first pitch of the game for a home run, his second in less than a week leading off a game.
He also homered to lead off the game Tuesday against the Yankees.
Nimmo’s homer was his seventh of the season as the Mets scored in the first inning for a second straight game (they scored four runs in their initial at-bat Friday).
But Senga sputtered in the second inning, allowing a two-run homer to Paul Goldschmidt that placed the Mets in a 3-1 hole.
Tommy Edman doubled and Brendan Donovan delivered an RBI single for the Cardinals’ first run. With two outs, Goldschmidt smashed a 98-mph fastball into the right-field seats for his 12th homer of the season.
Jordan Walker homered on an 0-2 four-seam fastball in the fourth, widening the Mets’ deficit to 4-1.
Senga previously hadn’t allowed multiple homers in a game since April 20, and before Saturday had surrendered only two total home runs in his previous eight starts.
“One pitch can make a big difference and when I am not able to execute like I should it leads to these types of hits,” Senga said.
The Mets received a two-out double from Starling Marte in the third inning, but Wainwright retired Jeff McNeil. In the fourth, Brett Baty hit into the Mets’ second double play of the game.
Mark Canha hit into an inning-ender in the second after Baty had singled and Daniel Vogelbach had walked.
Luis Guillorme’s first homer of the season, a two-run shot in the fifth, pulled the Mets within 4-3. Vogelbach singled leading off the inning before Guillorme, with one out, tore into a sinker and cleared the fence in right-center.
In the seventh inning, Guillorme doubled against reliever Andre Pallante, but was left stranded at third base.
Both Nimmo and Jeff McNeil had hard-hit grounders in the inning, but both went right at infielders for outs.
Brooks Raley surrendered a run in the ninth on Dylan Carlson’s RBI single that put the Mets in a two-run hole.
Francisco Lindor, who was absent from the starting lineup following the birth of his second daughter, entered as a pinch-hitter in the ninth and was plunked by a pitch before Jordan Hicks struck out Guillorme, Nimmo and Marte.
“One of the good things about this stretch is most of the games we have been in,” Lindor said. “It’s not like we’re getting beaten up every night. We have given ourselves a chance to win ballgames.”
