Senga settles for 1-hit shoutout

A week after Gerrit Cole lost a no-hitter in the 9th, Allentown's Kodai Senga did the same but managed to complete the 1-hit shutout.

Xander Bogaerts broke up Senga's no-no with a double down the first-base line to lead off the 9th inning. Senga then shut down the Dairy Cows for good. He struck out Freddie Freeman and Chris Morel and completed the 1-hit shoutout by getting Riley Greene to fly out to left to end the game. The Mules blanked Poovey Farms, 4-0, on Sunday putting up single runs in the 3rd, 4th, 7th and 9th innings.

Had Allentown been able to complete the feat, it would have been the second no-hitter in DMBL this season.

The Dairy Cows got a runner as far as 2nd base in the 8th after back-to-back two-out walks to J.T. Realmuto and Alec Bohm before Senga struck out Brandon Marsh to end the threat. Senga struck out 8 and walked 4 over the 8 innings while tossing 125 pitchers, 75 for strikes (.600). He also eclipsed 200 strikeouts on the year (203).

The 31-year-old rookie import from Japan improved to 12-5 on the season and keeping pace for the ERA title by lowering it to 2.80, 2nd in the league. The outing keeps him in the conversation for the Listach Award as the league's top rookie, and possibly even the McDonald Award for the top pitcher.

Allentown selected Senga in the 1st round of the 2023 draft, 8th overall, the second of mini-run on ineligible prospects. He was sandwiched after Empire City took 3B/SS Gunnar Henderson (the first prospect drafted that year) and before SP Andrew Painter was picked by Green Lake, which promptly sent him to Poovey Farms after the draft in exchange for fellow prospect 1B Kyle Manzardo. SS Elly de La Cruz also was taken as a prospect in the 1st that year, 11th overall by El Paso.