Kodai Senga was a ghost of his usual self for the first few innings Saturday before he finally figured things out, but by then it was too late. 

On another day, the Mets’ lineup might have rescued the right-hander and turned Senga’s start into a footnote.

On Saturday, however, hard-hit balls against Adam Wainwright and the Cardinals’ bullpen became outs, and the two early home runs Senga allowed couldn’t be undone in the Mets’ 5-3 loss at Citi Field that snapped their two-game winning streak. 

Senga, with the Cardinals largely laying off his signature “ghost forkball,” allowed four earned runs on five hits and one walk over 6 ¹/₃ innings for a second straight disappointing home start.

Sandwiched in between was a gem at Pittsburgh last Saturday, in which he allowed one unearned run over seven innings. 

The Mets, with a short bullpen as Drew Smith remains suspended through next weekend for violating MLB’s foreign substance rules, could at least be thankful Senga got them into the seventh inning.

The Cardinals had only one baserunner against Senga after the third inning, and that came on an error. 

Wainwright pitched to hard contact, but the Mets couldn’t capitalize.

The right-hander allowed three earned runs on seven hits and two walks over 6 ¹/₃ innings. Wainwright, 41, is 5-0 in his last six starts at Citi Field. 

Brandon Nimmo slammed Wainwright’s first pitch of the game for a home run, giving the outfielder his second homer in less than a week leading off a game, after he accomplished the same on Tuesday against the Yankees.

Nimmo’s homer was his seventh of the season as the Mets scored in the first inning for a second straight game (they scored four runs in their initial at-bat Friday). 

But Senga got jumped in the second inning, allowing a two-run homer to Paul Goldschmidt that placed the Mets in a 3-1 hole.

Tommy Edman doubled and Brendan Donovan delivered an RBI single for the Cardinals’ first run.

With two outs, Goldschmidt smashed a 98 mph fastball into the right-field seats for his 12th homer of the season. 

Jordan Walker homered in the fourth, widening the Mets’ deficit to 4-1.

Senga previously hadn’t allowed multiple homers in a game since April 20, and before Saturday he had surrendered only two total home runs in his previous eight starts. 

The Mets received a two-out double from Starling Marte in the third inning, but Wainwright retired Jeff McNeil. In the fourth, Brett Baty hit into the Mets’ second double play of the game.

Mark Canha hit into an inning-ender in the second after Baty had singled and Daniel Vogelbach walked. 

Luis Guillorme’s first homer of the season, a two-run shot in the fifth, pulled the Mets within 4-3.

Vogelbach singled leading off the inning before Guillorme, with one out, tore into a sinker and cleared the fence in right-center. 

In the seventh inning, Guillorme doubled against reliever Andre Pallante, but was left stranded at third base.

Both Nimmo and Jeff McNeil had hard-hit grounders in the inning, but both went right at infielders for outs. 

Brooks Raley surrendered a run in the ninth on Dylan Carlson’s RBI single after Paul DeJong’s leadoff single.