It was a tough night for the Mets, especially Kodai Sengawho didn't perform as well as he had hoped. Instead of pitching three solid innings, Senga allowed three runs in just 1 1/3 innings, leading to a 9-0 loss in Game 1 of the NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday night at Dodger Stadium.

Senga struggled from the start, unable to find the strike zone and leaving the Mets 0-2 in the first inning and 0-3 after the strikeout. Of his 30 throws, only 10 were strikes, his speed peaked at 94.5 miles per hour, and he failed to make any swings or misses. His signature forkball, thrown four times, was ineffective each time.

After the game, Senga noted that his mechanics had problems before his start today, which resulted in his speed decreasing and his inability to dominate the strike zone. For reference, his fastest pitch in Game 1 of the NLDS on October 5 was 97 mph and his fastest pitch in Game 1 of the NLCS eight days later was 94.5 mph, as noted above. In terms of command, nine of them SengasThirty-one pitches were in the strike zone and batters struck out on 13 pitches in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, the Dodgers saw 30 pitches from Senga, and the batters struck out just seven and struck out 23.

The decision to use Senga came with risks as he was limited in preparation due to a calf strain towards the end of the regular season. He pitched just two innings in Game 1 of the NLDS, where he gave up a leadoff home run Kyle Schwarber but recovered as the Mets came back to win. But this time things got worse quickly and it was the first time this offseason the Mets were complete exceeded.

While the Mets not officially set their rotation beyond this Sean Manaea Game 2 is scheduled Luis Severino to start game 3, Jose Quintana in Game 4 and potentially bring Senga back for Game 5. After such a tough trip though Sengas The status for a start to Game 5 is now uncertain.

The bullpen plan also failed when the Mets were forced to use David Peterson, Reed GarrettAnd Jose Butto earlier than expected. Garrett pitched a scoreless outing, but Peterson was shaken in the fourth inning, allowing three earned runs to extend the game Dodgers' led to 6:0. Butto loaded the bases in the eighth Mookie Betts delivered a three-run double. One of these runs was undeserved afterwards Pete Alonso'S Throwing error.

Originallythe Mets had hoped Senga would last three innings Tylor Megill or Peterson filling the gap with the back-end relievers. With Peterson and Butto batting and struggling for multiple inningsthe team needs to rethink its bullpen strategy. They will you have to rely on that more Phil Maton, Ryne StanekMegill and possibly Edwin Diaz. They might even consider using Peterson as the starter in Game 5 to replace Senga. The comes after the team leaves the reliever Adam Ottavino from the squad in favor of Jeff McNeil And Luisangel Acuna.

Since there is a day off on Tuesday, Game 2 will be crucial for the rotation and bullpen. The Mets will count on it Sean Manaea to go deep into his start and give the bullpen some rest and flexibility for the rest of the series. Their challenge will be to manage their bullpen effectively over the course of the series without overloading key arms. A well-run bullpen gave the Mets their wins over Milwaukee and Philadelphia, and that still applies TRUE here against a harder Opponents in a longer Series.