MLB
Kodai Senga and his “ghost” fork ball’s stellar major league debut for the Mets wasn’t the only thing helping the Japanese pitcher create a buzz.
Social media lit up at the sight of Senga’s customized ghost-fork glove, during the Mets’ 5-1 win over the Marlins at loanDepot Park on Sunday.
Senga, 30, allowed one run on three hits, walked three, and struck eight — seven of them with the use of his devastating signature pitch — over 5 1/3 innings.
“I had a center-field view,” Mets outfielder Tommy Pham said. “And based on their swings it was disgusting. The ball was just falling off the table.”
Senga’s special blue glove features a ghost holding a trident-like fork on the outside of the webbing and his name and number are spelled “S3NG4” in orange and black on the side.
It appears he had a number of versions of the gloves made by Zett back in January in blue, black, and red and black, with only some of the having both the ghost and the fork combination.
He unveiled them in a tweet with a caption in Japanese that translates to, “It was too cool.”
Senga, who signed a five-year, $75 million deal with the Mets this offseason, struggled early in his debut.
But he managed to give up just one run and wiggle out of a bases-loaded jam before settling down.
“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 was taken out after 88 pitches and a strikeout of Jazz Chisholm to lead off the sixth.
He threw 26 total forkballs.
His eight strikeouts tied Kenshin Kawakami and Masahiro Tanaka for the fourth-most by a Japanese pitcher in a MLB debut, trailing only Kazuhisa Ishii and Daisuke Matsuzaka (10 each), and Hideki Irabu (nine).
“A lot of guys kept pushing my back and giving me words of confidence, especially Francisco [Lindor], he did a really good job with that,” Senga said.
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