Kodai Senga allows 3 runs in Triple-A Syracuse rehab start

Kodai Senga’s road back to the Mets looked less like a setback than a checkpoint Thursday night in Syracuse, where the right-hander worked 3 2/3 innings, struck out five Rochester batters and still needed 80 pitches to finish 11 outs. The line was mixed enough to leave the central question intact: he still had enough swing-and-miss to matter, but not yet the command and efficiency that would put him on the doorstep of Queens.

Senga allowed three runs, two earned, on four hits, two walks and a hit-by-pitch as Triple-A Syracuse beat Rochester 8-4 and snapped the Red Wings’ 10-game winning streak. He did not factor in the decision, but the outing carried more weight than the scoreline. This was his second rehab appearance after he opened a minor league assignment at Single-A St. Lucie on May 22, following a late-April injured-list stint with lower back pain and lumbar spine inflammation.

The biggest indicator in the start was not the runs, but the pitch quality and the workload behind them. Senga threw 80 pitches and only 41 were strikes, a sign that his command still wavered even as he showed enough weaponry to miss bats. Four of his five strikeouts came on his signature forkball, the pitch that remains the clearest bridge between his pre-injury form and the Mets’ hope that he can stabilize their rotation again.

There was also a slight dip in velocity. His average four-seam fastball came in at 94.3 mph in Syracuse, down from 95.5 mph in his first rehab outing, and he reached 96 mph only once. That is not a red flag on its own, but it suggests the Mets still have a decision to make about whether he is simply building back volume or already nearing major league readiness.

The rehab assignment opened a 30-day window for a possible return to the majors, which puts the Mets in no hurry to rush the next step. For Senga, the outing was neither a clean breakthrough nor a true alarm bell. It was a reminder that the stuff is still there, the command is catching up, and the final stretch back to New York is now underway.