Senga pitched a scoreless ninth and wanted the baseball as a keepsake from his first MLB save, except that Carson Benge \u2014 who caught the final out \u2014 had already thrown it to a fan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Bengie is trying to tell me that I should have just punched him out,\u201d said Senga, who struck out the previous two batters in the inning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Williams, who arrived on a three-year contract worth $51 million, has pitched to a 4.66 ERA with 16 saves in 42 appearances this season. In his outing Friday against the Pirates, he surrendered two earned runs on three hits in recording the save.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Kodai](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/kodai-senga-34-new-york-137041501.jpg\")
Kodai Senga laughs after Carson Benge throws the ball into the stands after the Mets-Braves game on Aug. 10, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Williams\u2019 strain, according to Green, isn\u2019t considered serious and the Mets are hopeful he will return this season. Green placed a timeline of a \u201cfew weeks\u201d for Williams to potentially begin throwing again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI know he wants to compete for us again before the year is out,\u201d Green said. \u201cHe wants to get on the mound and finish strong.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The IL stint occurs a week after the team dealt A.J. Minter, Brooks Raley, Luke Weaver and Huascar Brazob\u00e1n at the trade deadline.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Green said the closer\u2019s role will remain fluid in Williams\u2019 absence, but acknowledged Senga\u2019s upside. Senga has shifted to higher-leverage relief situations since the bullpen\u2019s overhaul. Entering Monday, he had pitched two shutout innings in higher-leverage spots over the past week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a great environment for myself,\u201d Senga said. \u201cFirst of all, my body feels great. I\u2019m able to go out there and perform in short innings, regardless of the situation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Senga\u2019s struggles as a starter prompted his shift to a middle relief role last month. The right-hander began play with an 8.29 ERA overall.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was great [tonight],\u201d Green said. \u201cHopefully he feels great [Tuesday] and he\u2019s ready to go again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Senga acknowledged the challenge he will face in pitching consecutive days if needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI have not done that before, so I don\u2019t know what\u2019s to come,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what to expect, but as a reliever it\u2019s something that most of these guys do and experience, so that may be coming down the road, but it\u2019s to be seen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The new cast includes lefties Nate Lavender and Jefry Yan and right-hander Dedniel N\u00fa\u00f1ez, who returned last week from Tommy John surgery rehab. The Mets have received a boost from Daniel Duarte, who has pitched to a 1.04 ERA in 12 appearances \u2014 including a scoreless two-inning stint Monday. Yan, who possesses triple-digit heat, has gained attention for his post-strikeout celebrations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, it depends on the pocket,\u201d Green said of his plans at closer. \u201cI think there\u2019s three or four guys that, given the context of the game, it makes sense to face certain hitters and I am confident in the makeup of the human that they will be able to handle the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 The Mets didn\u2019t trade Devin Williams at last week\u2019s deadline but will still have to navigate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,179993,591,1830,85],"class_list":["post-851123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-kodai-senga","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}