Mets' Kodai Senga lands on 15-day injured list with low-grade hamstring strain

New York Mets right-hander Kodai Senga, the major league ERA leader, was diagnosed with a Grade 1 strain of his right hamstring Friday, hours after he was placed on the 15-day injured list.

Manager Carlos Mendoza said after the Mets' 7-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays that Senga will be shut down for two weeks before being re-evaluated.

"Talking to the trainers, they feel like we got some good news here," Mendoza said.

Senga was injured covering first base on a grounder to Pete Alonso in the sixth inning of Thursday's win over the Washington Nationals. According to Mendoza, Senga said he felt his hamstring grab one stride before he made a leaping catch of Alonso’s high throw to retire CJ Abrams.

Senga is 7-3 with a 1.47 ERA for the Mets, whose starters have the lowest ERA in the bigs at 2.78 despite missing Sean Manaea (right oblique) and Frankie Montas (right lat), both of whom were injured in spring training.

Paul Blackburn will replace Senga in the rotation next Wednesday against Atlanta. Blackburn made his third appearance of the season Friday and was charged with four runs in one-third of an inning in relief of Clay Holmes.

"You hate to see it, especially talking about a guy like Senga with the way he’s been throwing the baseball," Mendoza said before the game Friday. "But we also feel good with the pitching that we’ve got currently in place. They’ve been doing it the whole year and they will continue to do so.

"But losing Senga obviously is a tough one here."

The leg injury is the second in as many seasons for Senga, who strained his left calf in his only regular-season start last July 26. After missing the first 102 games because of a right shoulder strain, Senga gave up two runs in 5 1/3 innings against the Braves