Tylor Megill to start series opener vs. Cubs after Kodai Senga’s outing gets pushed back due to rest

CHICAGO — The Mets are making a pitching tweak to start a six-game road trip against the Chicago Cubs and the Colorado Rockies. Right-hander Kodai Senga is being pushed back by one day to allow for extra rest for his next two starts.

Senga was set to pitch the series opener Tuesday at Wrigley Field, with Tylor Megill and Carlos Carrasco to follow in the second and third games of the series, but they flipped Senga and Megill.

Megill (5-2. 3.88) will now face left-hander Drew Smyly (4-1, 2.86) on Tuesday and Senga (4-2, 3.77) will face former Mets’ right-hander and Long Island native Marcus Stroman (3-4, 3.05) on Wednesday. Carrasco (0-2, 8.68) will finish the series against former Yankees righty Jameson Taillon (0-3, 8.10) on Thursday.

Extra rest has been the norm for the Japanese rookie as the Mets have tried to get him acclimated to the North American game. In the Nippon Professional Baseball League, pitchers typically only pitch once a week instead of every fifth day and the Mets wanted to try and mimic his work week in Japan.

At one point, he even received three extra days off, though he wasn’t exactly thrilled about it. Senga told the Daily News that he found it difficult to stay engaged with so many off days, but used the downtime to work on pitch sequencing and making some mechanical adjustments.

Tylor Megill gets the start on Tuesday against the Cubs. (Alex Brandon/AP)

The Mets have used a six-man rotation for much of the season, allowing Senga and other starters to have more rest. However, David Peterson’s struggles forced the Mets to send the lefty back to Triple-A and abandon the idea, at least temporarily. But a team off day gave the Mets some flexibility to shuffle the starters around.

[ Mets facing crossroads with struggling David Peterson: ‘It’s been really frustrating for everybody’ ]

Senga is coming off the best start of the season. Against the league-leading Tampa Bay Rays last week, he allowed only one earned run on three hits, walked three and struck out a career-high 12 hitters. He’s adjusted the way he sequences but has been consistent in using the forkball as his put-away pitch. The walks are still a problem and he has consistently been about 50-50 when it comes to balls and strikes, but Senga has been more pitch-efficient in recent starts.

Megill is also coming off a season-best performance. He went six innings against the Rays his last time out, limiting baseball’s best offense to only two earned runs on four hits.

The Mets carry a five-game winning streak into Chicago. Finally, the pitching and the hitting are coming together. The club has posted a 4.02 ERA and received four quality starts in that span. They also slashed .274/.347/.470 with 13 extra-base hits and a .818 OPS in those five games.

Meanwhile, the Cubs are coming off of a disastrous nine-game road trip through Minneapolis, Houston and Philadelphia. They went 2-7 in that span and were swept by the Houston Astros. They did the Mets no favors over the weekend by dropping two of three to the Phillies.