Did you think that it was just Shohei Ohtani’s thunderous 411-foot homer that turned heads in Citi Field on Sunday night? Well, it turns out there is a twist here. This is because someone else or something else kind of stole the spotlight—New York Mets’ ace Kodai Senga’s glove! Believe it or not.
The Mets’ $75 million ace and ghost fork wizard Senga was ready for a showdown. Sure, he didn’t have his sharper stuff, but he still held the Dodgers to one run over 5 ⅓ gritty innings. But what he didn’t expect was that he would have to go through a last-minute glove change!
It turns out that just before that game, umpires asked Senga to ditch his light gray glove. It’s a move that has now raised eyebrows. Now, rumors are swirling about how the Los Angeles Dodgers may have flagged it.
The umpires made Kodai Senga change his glove before he came out for the 2nd inning pic.twitter.com/vDPIrzlQPe
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) May 25, 2025
However, when New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza, who watched Ohtani throw live BP earlier in the day, when asked about the glove fiasco, he remained unbothered. He smirked and said, “I don’t know if it was the Dodgers. The umpires came up, and you know, that’s the rule. It’s either light gray or white—they’re not allowed. I probably would’ve done the same thing.”
Senga, too, through an interpreter, said, “It’s because the color of the glove is close to the color of the baseball.” Now, whether it’s a harmless rule or a subtle mind game by the Dodgers—who knows? Either way, it seemed to want to put Senga on the back foot before he even threw a pitch. But if this was a psychological tactic, it didn’t work. Senga shook off Ohtani’s leadoff bomb—the first homer he’d allowed in over 200 batters. He used every trick in his arsenal, from fastballs to sliders and that elusive ghost fork. In the end, the Dodgers faced a series loss, and Senga had, well, a slightly bruised ERA of 1.46.
New York Mets win big, and so does Pete Alonso’s legacy
The Mets, though, had more to smile about than just a win on Sunday night. Yes, they beat the Dodgers, the team that edged them out for the postseason last time. But another big headline was Pete Alonso and his bat and how exactly he is rewriting Mets history one homer at a time.
See, offensively, the Mets didn’t explode, but they didn’t need to because Pete Alonso took care of it. In the bottom of the third, he launched a two-run homer that flipped the game. It was his 10th of the season and 236th of his career. That puts him just six home runs behind David Wright on the Mets’ all-time list. Darryl Strawberry’s record is not far ahead either. Crazy to think that Alonso nearly had or almost had his foot out of New York this off-season—isn’t it? Steve Cohen might be thanking his stars for having convinced the Polar Bear himself. Especially after Cohen had almost given up on Alonso coming back. But Alonso’s season is heating big time.
He is hitting. 291 with 40 RBIs and a .927 OPS. And the best part? He is doing it all with that signature Polar Bear calm. Like it’s just another day at the office. This win brings the New York Mets to a 32-21 record, the same as the Dodgers but in the East. But they are still in second place behind the Atlanta Braves. However, the vibes in Queens are undoubtedly good, and the best part is that they are an army rather than a one-man show. Sure, Soto is there, but even the rest are doing their best, like Alonso.
Next up, the Chicago White Sox are coming to town for a showdown at Citi Field. Do you think Alonso’s bat will remain hot? Let us know.
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