The Mets will ask Kodai Senga to continue working on his mechanics at Triple-A while the club works on Jonah Tong’s confidence.
Senga will receive another start with Syracuse, manager Carlos Mendoza said Saturday, after a strong first start Friday in which Senga needed just 74 pitches to throw six innings in which he allowed one run on three hits with no walks and eight strikeouts.
Barring an injury to another Mets pitcher, the former ace — whose prolonged struggles and issues with mechanics prompted the demotion — cannot be added to the active roster until next Saturday anyway.
But the first step for Senga in his attempted comeback was “very good,” Mendoza said.
“The main thing is he threw strikes, he attacked,” Mendoza said before a 3-2 loss to the Rangers at Citi Field. “Pretty much every pitch was working.”
Not so for Tong, who was drilled for six runs while recording just two outs in Friday’s loss. After his third career game, the 22-year-old was emotional and looked shell-shocked.
Mendoza said he talked with Tong after the game and again Saturday morning, and he was not alone.
After the dud, “the whole team was right there supporting him,” Mendoza said.
“It was pretty telling for me to see all the veterans — pretty much the whole team — supporting him [Friday] night,” he added. “It goes to show that not only do we have really good players, we have really good people here.”
What’s next for Tong is not clear. Mendoza said “as of right now” Tong is in the rotation, which was his answer when asked about Sean Manaea last week, too.
The Mets have an off-day Monday on which they plan to talk through what is now a six-man rotation with several question marks. It is possible a couple of starting pitchers will be asked to work in tandem.
Some levity: Before the Alumni Classic, Carlos Beltran sat on the dais in between Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado and reflected on the 2006 Mets who fell short.
“We didn’t end up going to the World Series,” Beltran said. “Everyone knows what happened.”
Before he could continue, Reyes cut in: “What happened?” he asked several times, to laughs.
Beltran, of course, struck out looking on an Adam Wainwright curveball that sent the Cardinals to the World Series.
“He hasn’t changed at all,” Delgado said about Reyes.
Pete Alonso singled in the first and fifth innings for his eighth multihit game since Aug. 26, tied for the most in the majors in the span.
During this stretch, he has a slash line of .316/.346/.539.
The Mets announced they will wear a uniform patch to honor Davey Johnson throughout next season.
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