Major League Baseball Mets pitcher Kodai Chiga pitched the third opener, holding the team to two runs in the middle of the fifth inning while sealing his favorite forkball.
Senga, who moved from professional baseball and SoftBank to the Mets of the Major League Baseball, started the game against the Astros in Florida on the 22nd.
In the first inning, Chiga struck out the opponent's No. 5 batter with a straight 1.2 km, the fastest of the day, and held the game to three strikeouts until the second inning.
In the third inning, he hit a foreball and a hit to first base with one out, but he survived the pinch by hitting a double play in third with a slider, and in the fourth inning, he again struck out three.
However, in the fifth inning, Chiga walked off the mound with two foreballs in a row, and the pitcher behind him was hit and the runner returned home, giving up two runs.
In his third start of the opener, Chiga threw five innings, allowing two hits, two runs, 158 pitches, three strikeouts, and three foreballs.
After the game, Chiga commented on his failure to throw a forkball, which is his specialty in this game following his previous pitch, saying, "I can throw as much as I can throw, but I had inflammation in my right index finger before, so now I'm trying to get it to 8% condition for the start of the season."
Regarding Japan's victory in the WBC = World Baseball Classic, he said, "I knew that if Shohei Ohtani pitched at the end of the game, the three of us would go to Trout, so I thought it was a drama. I want to appeal to people at the next tournament so that they can talk to me," he said, expressing his thoughts for the next tournament in 2.