MIAMI — Kodai Senga struck out eight in his major league debut, wearing a glove with an image of a ghost and a pitchfork in reference to his “ghost forkball,” leading the New York Mets over the Miami Marlins 5-1 on Sunday.
The 30-year-old left-hander agreed to a $75 million, five-year contract after going 87-44 with a 2.59 ERA in 11 seasons with the Pacific League’s Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. He overcame a difficult first inning and allowed one run, three hits and three walks in 5⅓ innings.
“First inning, definitely a lot of nerves,” Senga said through a translator. “My legs felt like a ghost. Once I got into a little bit of a pinch, I started to settle down and calm myself down.”
Senga averaged 96.8 mph with 32 fastballs — the fastest 99 mph — and threw 26 forkballs, 18 sweepers and 12 cutters. His eight strikeouts tied Kenshin Kawakami and Masahiro Tanaka for the fourth most by a Japanese pitcher in an MLB debut, trailing only Kazuhisa Ishii and Daisuke Matsuzaka (10 each) and Hideki Irabu (nine).
“It was a gradual thing, more step by step,” Senga said. “I got more used to the moment. A lot of guys kept pushing my back, giving me words of confidence.”
Senga’s day ended on his 88th pitch, a strikeout of Jazz Chisholm Jr. to lead off the sixth. The large contingent of Mets fans at LoanDepot Park cheered Senga while he returned to the dugout.
Tommy Pham had three hits and three RBIs, finishing a triple shy of the cycle as the Mets won for the third time in the four-game opening series.
Pham, who has dealt with a cornea thinning condition since 2008, said he was fitted with new set of contact lenses Friday.
“I feel I’m seeing the ball better,” Pham said. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say my eye doctor here fine-tuned my lenses for me. I felt everything was different in a good way.”
Trevor Rogers (0-1) gave up 4 runs, 4 hits and 2 walks with two hit batters in 4⅓ innings.
After four-pitch walks in the first to Pete Alonso and Mark Canha loaded the bases, Jeff McNeil hit a dribbler between the mound and first. Rogers flipped the ball past first baseman Yuli Gurriel as two runs scored.
“Just really amped up that first inning,” Rogers said. “Had a tough time really getting my heart rate under control. Kind of got my command out of whack. Really just got to clean that up.”
Luis Arraez had three multi-hit games in the series for the Marlins. The reigning American League batting champion, acquired in an offseason trade, is hitting .563 at a 9-for-16 clip to start the season. The rest of the team is 20-for-111 for a .180 average.
Senga labored through a 36-pitch bottom half as Miami’s first five batters reached and narrowed the deficit on Jorge Soler’s RBI double. But Senga escaped a bases-loaded jam by striking out Gurriel and Jesus Sanchez, then retiring Jon Berti on a line drive to right.
“He started getting command of some pitches, getting some counts in his favor and making them rush to get to the fastball,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said of Senga’s adjustment. “That opened up a lot of avenues for him.”
Pham hit his first homer for the Mets, a two-run drive in the fifth, and had an RBI double in the seventh when his sinking line drive to center eluded a diving Chisholm.
DUBLIN — Rocco Becht passed for two touchdowns and ran for another score, helping No. 22 Iowa State beat No. 17 Kansas State24-21 in the Aer Lingus Classic on Saturday.
Becht was 14-for-28 for 183 yards. He found Dominic Overby for a 23-yard TD in the first quarter and passed to Brett Eskildsen for a 24-yard score in the third quarter.
With 2:26 to go, Iowa State went for it on fourth-and-3 at the Kansas State 16-yard line. Becht found Carson Hansen for 15 yards and iced the game.
“He called a great play, he gave me two plays and let me decide and I knew we were going to have a chance to get it,” Becht said “We’ve worked on it in practice and it’s been working for us and we’re confident with it and I have trust in my guys.”
The Cyclones (1-0, 1-0 Big 12) opened a 24-14 lead in the fourth quarter after a turnover on downs by Kansas State at its own 30-yard line. Becht finished the short drive with a 7-yard touchdown run with 6:38 left.
Avery Johnson passed for 273 yards and two touchdowns for Kansas State (0-1, 0-1). He also had a 10-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.
“I mean that’s the thing, regardless of the outcome we have 11 games to play,” Kansas State coach Chris Klieman said. “We have our back against the wall, but now we’ve got to reset and regroup and get ready to play.”
Johnson threw a 65-yard touchdown pass to Jerand Bradley with 6:23 remaining, but the Wildcats never got the ball back.
Both teams struggled to deal with wet conditions in the first half. Kansas State had two turnovers and a turnover on downs, and Iowa State committed two turnovers in the first 30 minutes.
“We just made some great adjustments,” Campbell said. “We saw some things different in the first game and the opportunity to make some adjustments and to have the ability to do that, to have the staff that’s been together for so long that we have the confidence to make those adjustments.”
The Cyclones grabbed a 14-7 lead when Becht found Eskildsen in the corner of the end zone with 1:07 left in the third quarter.
Johnson responded with a 37-yard touchdown pass to Jayce Brown, tying it at 14 with 14:09 remaining in the game.
Hansen led Iowa State with 71 yards rushing on 16 carries. Joe Jackson had 51 yards on 12 carries for Kansas State.
“I thought that the (offensive line) did a really great job in the second half,” Campbell said. “Our tight ends and o-line did a great job of execution and man Carson is a really great player so we’re really proud of him.”
Iowa State has beat Kansas State in five of the past six seasons.
“I think those are great wins, any time you can beat quality opponents that’s awesome,” Campbell said. “We got a long way to go, it’s only game one and there’s a lot of football left and we’re going to have to see if we’re tough enough as a program and team to go home and get ready for a good South Dakota team next week.”
Kansas State running back Dylan Edwards was injured in the first quarter on a punt that he muffed. He didn’t return to the game.
The Mets said Montas had a right elbow UCL injury. The move was made retroactive to Friday.
Montas is 3-2 with a 6.28 ERA in nine games, including seven starts.
Right-hander Huascar Brazobán was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse. Brazobán is 5-2 with a 3.83 ERA in 44 games, including three starts, with the Mets this season. His three starts came as an opener.
PITTSBURGH — Bubba Chandler wanted to drink in a moment a lifetime in the making.
The combination of adrenaline, the remnants of his traditional pregame Red Bull coursing through his system and the buzz inside PNC Park as the 22-year-old Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander made his major league debut in the top of the sixth Friday night against Colorado wouldn’t let him.
“I blacked out in the first inning,” Chandler said. “But I just kind of heard the place go crazy.”
With any luck, not for the last time.
Flashing (and sometimes fighting) the electric stuff that made him the top pitching prospect in baseball, Chandler made history while offering a hint of what might come during Pittsburgh’s 9-0 victory over the Rockies.
Anchored by a fastball that reached triple digits with ease and helped by some solid defense behind him, Chandler became the first pitcher to throw four scoreless innings and record a save in his debut since saves became an officially recognized statistic in 1969.
“Kind of everything I dreamed of,” Chandler said after allowing two hits and striking out three while needing 40 pitches to record 12 outs.
Even if running out of the bullpen in late August for a team likely on its way to a last-place finish isn’t exactly what Chandler envisioned his first moment in the big leagues might look like.
If he’s being honest, Chandler thought he would be up sooner, particularly after a spectacular first two months at Triple-A Indianapolis in which he was at times unhittable.
“I was mad, yeah,” Chandler said.
That anger, however, morphed into something else entirely by the time Chandler delivered his first big league pitch, a 99 mph fastball that Colorado’s Orlando Arcia fouled off over the backstop: gratitude.
“You can complain all you want, everything,” Chandler said. “In the end, I’m here in the big leagues. There’s not a lot of 22-year-old kids that get to do this.”
No, there’s not. And even fewer who can do it the way Chandler does it, by attacking the strike zone with what teammate Braxton Ashcraft — who set the table for Chandler by throwing five innings of one-hit ball — called “one of the best arms I’ve ever seen.”
Chandler wasn’t perfect. But he was close.
Arcia took Chandler’s third pitch in the majors and slammed it off the left-field wall for a double. It was the lone major mistake Chandler made.
He fanned Ryan Ritter on a 100 mph fastball that painted the outside corner, induced Tyler Freeman to ground out to second and then struck out Mickey Moniak swinging on another triple-digit fastball.
Chandler needed just seven pitches to retire the Rockies in order in the seventh, helped by a sliding catch by center fielder Jack Suwinski.
Colorado’s Braxton Fulford led off the eighth by getting hit by a pitch but Chandler induced Yanquiel Fernandez to hit into a double play and exacted a bit of revenge by getting Arcia to flail at a 1-2 changeup that dipped down and out of the zone, the only time during his appearance that Chandler made it a point to admire his work.
“I was like, ‘Dang, that felt good coming out of the hand, that was a great pitch,'” Chandler said with a laugh.
Pittsburgh manager Don Kelly sent Chandler back out for the ninth. He worked around a single by Ritter by getting three straight fly outs to end it. Chandler started walking toward the dugout when Suwinski tracked down Warming Bernabel‘s liner to give the Pirates their third victory in four games.
It was only then that Chandler — who had started in 83 of his 89 minor league appearances — remembered that the game was over. It was time to stay on the field for the handshake line that only comes after you close out a win.
In between the hugs, a figurative weight lifted off the slender shoulders that sit atop his 6-foot-3 frame.
“There’s a lot of times during the offseason or during the season it’s like, ‘This sucks. Where’s the light at the end of the tunnel type of thing?'” he said. “I found it.”
The Pirates plan to use Chandler in a relief role for now as a way of creating what Kelly called an “on ramp” to the majors, a strategy the club used earlier this season after calling up Ashcraft.
Chandler will have an opportunity to start at some point, though the club is keeping a careful eye on his workload. His historic night pushed his season total to 104 innings, not that far away from the 119⅔ innings he pitched a year ago.
The reality is that whatever happens over the next five weeks will help set the table for 2026, when Pittsburgh’s rotation could include Chandler, Ashcraft, reigning NL Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes and Mitch Keller, among others.
The future could be exciting if the Pirates can find a way to fix the worst offense in the majors. All that matters to Chandler is that the future is finally here.
“The past 22 years, it’s just been ‘I want to be on a major league field,’ and whether it was hitting or pitching, just wanted to be in the game and show what God gave me,” he said. “And I believe I did that.”
