The ghost fork — the signature pitch thrown by the New York Mets’ Kodai Senga, a forkball kind of like a splitter that disappears as it heads over the plate — has been seriously effective for the Japanese pitcher.
Senga, as you’ll see below, can fool hitters who think they might be seeing a fastball until it falls off the plate. And a slow-motion view of the pitch reveals how it hangs out there for a hitter to feast on … until it just drops right off the table. A ghost (with a fork), indeed.
The numbers based off the pitch don’t lie, either. Check it all out below:
Kodai Senga, Disappearing 85mph Ghost Fork. 👻🍴
3rd K thru 2. pic.twitter.com/1O8X0LNf9t
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 30, 2023
Kodai Senga, 84mph Ghost Fork and 98mph Fastball, Overlay pic.twitter.com/sB4tJCsOwn
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 31, 2023
The ghost fork from Kodai Senga has been terrific:
.107 AVG (8th in MLB)
.125 SLG (2nd in MLB)
59.1 Whiff% is best in baseball for any particular pitch (Strider's
slider 2nd at 56.8%)
11.8 Hard Hit% 2nd best in MLB
.175 xwOBA T/2nd best in MLB pic.twitter.com/7SjHNcdTQq— Mike Mayer (@mikemayer22) May 31, 2023
