Tag: Kodai Senga

What is Kodai Senga’s ghost fork? The pitch with so much movement, explained

Kodai Senga’s ghost fork pitch, explained.

Welcome to FTW Explains: a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. Have you heard about New York Mets pitcher Kodai Senga and something about his “ghost fork” pitch? and you have no clue what that’s all about? We’re here to help.

(This was published first in 2023.)

Kodai Senga joined MLB after a career in Japan saw him compile a 2.42 ERA, with the 30-year-old signing with the Mets this past offseason.

And all the buzz was about something called the “Ghost Fork,” a pitch that he brought with him that had its spring training debut this week.

What’s it all about? Let’s dive in.

Francisco Lindor’s grand slam triggered the funniest Kodai Senga reaction

The Mets pitcher seemed SHOCKED.

The New York Mets will advance to the NLCS after a grand slam by Francisco Lindor. The home run was shocking to many, including Kodai Senga.

Lindor led the Mets to take a 4-1 advantage over the rival Philadelphia Phillies, which helped his team eventually seal the deal and win the NLDS. This was a major relief not only to New York starting pitcher José Quintana but the entire roster for the Mets.

That includes Senga, who was the starting pitcher in the opening game of the series against Philadelphia. No one seemed more surprised at the sheer thrill of the moment and his reaction was probably recreated across many homes of fans who were watching this game.

https://twitter.com/SNY_Mets/status/1844369001226567977

Senga has had several amazing reactions during the playoffs, including this one and this one.

His energy on and off the field is helping New York in this miraculous postseason run.

[lawrence-auto-related count=5 category=1374 tag=14441]

Mets pitcher Kodai Senga’s ridiculous ghost fork had Dansby Swanson fuming after a strikeout

Can’t blame him after that pitch.

There haven’t been many positives to take away from the New York Mets’ 2023 season, but first-year pitcher Kodai Senga has certainly held up his end of the bargain.

Senga arrived from Japan’s NPB after signing a five-year, $75 million deal with the Mets in December. And he quickly introduced big-league hitters to his signature pitch: the ghost fork.

The pitch is amazingly deceptive and looks like a fastball to the hitter until the pitch takes a life of its own with forkball movement. In Monday’s 11-2 win over the Chicago Cubs, Senga’s ghost fork basically had shortstop Dansby Swanson in disbelief after a strikeout.

Swanson struck out against the ghost fork in his first at-bat. And his second at-bat didn’t go any better in the third inning. Swanson fell behind in the count, and Senga finished him off with a 79 mph ghost fork that broke 49 inches vertically.

Again, that’s a pitch that initially looks like a fastball to the batter. There’s not much anyone can do about that, and Swanson couldn’t hold back his frustration after the strikeout. He spiked his bat and helmet as the inning came to a close.

Fans were also impressed with the pitch. A ghost fork like that one is almost impossible to hit.

Kodai Senga jokingly revealed how he’s going to recruit Shohei Ohtani to the Mets

Kodai understands the assignment.

The New York Mets went into the MLB season with baseball’s highest payroll, and at the All-Star break, they’re at a disappointing fourth place in the National League East standings. But even if this season ends up being a wash for the Mets, they’ll still have plenty of money to spend as long as owner Steve Cohen is around.

So with that in mind, we should expect the Mets to make a push for baseball’s biggest free-agent prize ever: Shohei Ohtani.

Mets pitcher Kodai Senga might even be working on a recruiting pitch already.

Speaking to reporters in Seattle ahead of the MLB All-Star Game, the Japanese pitcher was asked about any possible recruiting efforts to bring Ohtani to the Mets. Senga laughed about the question but had an excellent response.

“I’m going to put this hat on him right now,” he joked through an interpreter.

Of course, if Senga actually put a Mets hat on Ohtani’s head, he’d immediately become a legend over in Queens.

While we don’t know exactly where Ohtani will go next season (likely a West Coast team), the Mets should be somewhere in the race on deep pockets alone. Mets fans loved that Senga seemed willing to help even as a joke.

The Mets have found the perfect jumbotron celebration for Kodai Senga ghost fork strikeouts

Ghost fork celebrations at Citi Field!

The New York Mets have fully embraced the ghost fork.

The dangerous pitch from Mets ace Kodai Senga has taken the MLB by storm and is already causing opposing batters plenty of problems.

Senga even has a little ghost fork logo on his pitcher’s glove (seen above). It’s a thing now, and it’s always going to be until MLB hitters learn a way around it.

The Mets have found a really fun way to celebrate a Senga strikeout when he uses the unorthodox pitch.

On the Citi Field jumbotron, the team now rings in a Senga strikeout with an 8-bit animation of a ghost holding a fork and spells out Senga’s name behind it with the same font used in the Sega video game logo (the folks who did Sonic the Hedgehog).

Like, c’mon, that’s absolutely adorable. Look at the little fork!

If you play at Citi Field and Senga gets you with his ghost fork pitch, you can at least take heart that you’re going to head back to the dugout with the cutest little guy saying hello to you on the jumbotron.

Kodai Senga actually has a literal ghost fork image on his glove

The Mets pitcher has the perfect glove.

The legend of Kodai Senga and his “ghost fork” pitch — a cross between a forkball and a splitter that dives out of the zone, disappearing like it’s a … well, you get it — made their MLB regular-season debut on Sunday with much fanfare after he struck out Yuli Gurriel.

That’s not the only really cool thing about the New York Mets pitcher from Japan who’s now a 30-year-old rookie.

It turns out that he’s paid tribute to his trademark pitch on his glove. He has a literal ghost with a fork printed on there, and I really just need to find out how I can buy one of those:

GHOST WITH A FORK!

Kodai Senga threw the ghost fork for his first MLB out and completely embarrassed Yuli Gurriel in the process

The ghost fork is NO JOKE.

When the New York Mets signed pitcher Kodai Senga from Japan this offseason, fans quickly got to learn about the 30-year-old’s signature pitch. And yes, it’s as spooky as it sounds.

Senga — who posted 2.42 ERA during his time in Japan — throws a fastball that tops out at 99 mph to go along with his own off-speed variation of the forkball called a “ghost fork.” It had been his get-out pitch throughout his career in the Japanese NPB, and on Sunday, that pitch was in action for the first time in a regular season MLB game.

The Marlins’ Yuli Gurriel was Senga’s first strikeout victim, and I don’t think anyone could’ve really anticipated the ghost fork doing this to a seasoned big-league hitter.

The ghost fork had Gurriel losing his bat in a wild, off-balance swing. That movement truly was something else, and Senga struck out eight batters in the game — all with the ghost fork.

The Mets would go on to win, 5-1, behind Senga’s 5.1 innings of three-hit baseball. It’s safe to say that fans took notice to the ghost fork as well.