MIAMI — After the slow, unwanted, post-loss walk out of the dugout and into the clubhouse Tuesday night, Francisco Lindor sought out the would-be star of the game, Kodai Senga, because he had something to say.
Sorry.
Lindor committed two fielding errors, the latter of which opened the door for the Marlins’ go-ahead rally in the fourth inning, dooming Senga and the Mets to a 4-2 defeat. So Lindor wanted to own it, face to face, after Senga’s season debut that otherwise was quite solid, pretty much matching Miami ace Sandy Alcantara.
“I take a lot of pride in it, and it doesn’t feel good,” said Lindor, who played in his first game since the birth of his first son (third child), Koa, on Sunday. “I talked to Senga. Senga said don’t worry about it, I’ve picked him up many times. But it still kind of hurts.”
The key sequence came during a tied game. Otto Lopez led off the bottom of the fourth with a rocket of a ground ball at Lindor, who biffed it, putting Lopez at first base. It was the first time since July 8, 2023, and just the second time in the past six years that Lindor committed multiple errors in a game.
Later in the frame, with two outs that could have been three, Jonah Bride worked a walk against Senga by laying off back-to-back two-strike forkballs, the pitch that had fooled a bunch of his teammates earlier in the night.
That brought up Graham Pauley with two runners on. He came through with the eventual game-winning hit, pummeling a center-cut cutter into the left-centerfield gap for a two-run double.
Thus, Lindor felt guilty. But Senga wound up feeling similarly.
“Since the day I signed with this team, Lindor has always been there,” Senga said through an interpreter. “He’s always supported me, always given me words of encouragement. He’s always been there for not just me but everybody on the team.
“So when he makes a mistake, I need to be there to pick him up . . . It was my fault to make his errors be highlighted because of my poor performance.”
Manager Carlos Mendoza said: “Very rare to see him with two errors in a game. It happens. He’s human.”
That helped ruin the night for the Mets, who managed two hits after the third inning and wasted a two-on, one out chance in the ninth. Alcantara, making his second start back from Tommy John surgery in late 2023, limited them to two runs in five innings (70 pitches).
Senga’s final line across five innings included four runs (two earned), three hits and that big Bride walk. He struck out eight, all swinging, the first six on his signature forkball.
Admitting afterward to nerves in his first action after an injury-marred 2024 in which he made just one start during the regular season, Senga put the Mets behind almost immediately. Leadoff man Xavier Edwards doubled on a fastball over the heart of the plate and two pitches later Kyle Stowers crushed a home run on a middle-middle heater.
“I lacked a little bit of calmness, giving them easy pitches to hit,” Senga said. “I was just a little relieved to be back out there in a big-league game after the year that I had last year. That led to bad results. But after that I was able to sort out through my head what I need to do, all the data on how to approach the hitters. That turned out to be effective.”
Senga settled in to retire 10 of the next 12 batters, the exceptions coming on Lindor’s miscues.
“Usually errors happen when you take your eyes off the baseball,” Lindor said. “And I saw both of them hit my glove . . . So my head, everything was on the baseball. I just missed them.”
In between his errors, Lindor contributed an RBI single, sneaking a ground ball up the middle against a drawn-in infield, bringing in Luisangel Acuna in the third. It was his first hit of the season, snapping an 0-for-12 skid. He slammed his bat to the ground on the way to first.
