‘A little hard to stay focused’ – The Denver Post

When Kodai Senga takes the Citi Field mound Friday night, eight days will have passed since the last time he pitched in a game. The Mets wanted to give him a few extra days in between starts, with the reason being that the team thought he would benefit from a schedule closer to that of the one he adhered to during his career in Japan in the Nippon Professional Baseball League.

“The plan going in this season was to try and give him as much of a semblance of what he’s come from,” manager Buck Showalter said earlier this week. “Many times he would pitch every seventh day or every sixth day.”

Pitchers in Japan take the ball every sixth day instead of every fifth day as they do in North America. They also throw more pitches in each outing, often throwing more than 100, which is…