Carson Benge’s week gave the Mets’ stat sheet plenty to chew on, and the weirdness started immediately.
On Monday, Benge pulled off something almost no one does: he recorded a solo assist at home plate on consecutive batters. Since 1997, only three other players had done it before him - Brian Hunter on May 18, 1998, Gary Sheffield on April 25, 2001, and Rocco Baldelli on August 12, 2004. He also became the first Mets outfielder ever to notch two outfield assists to the catcher in the same inning.
The Mets, for their part, kept a tidy run going against San Diego. Since being eliminated by the Padres in the 2022 Wild Card Series - including that 7-1 Game 1 loss - they’ve now won seven of their last eight series openers against them.
Tuesday night brought another first at Citi Field. Before then, the Padres were the only National League team that had never had a right-handed batter post a multi-homer game there.
Tatis changed that, becoming the first Padre to do it and only the second Padre overall with a multi-homer game at Citi Field, joining Ryan Schimpf on August 12, 2016. On the mound, Zac Thornton’s stuff jumped off the page: his 14 whiffs were a career high in his nine starts, and his seven strikeouts matched his personal best.
Benge showed up again on Wednesday, this time with the bat. His fourth-inning homer made him the second Met ever to finish a rookie season with 15 home runs and 15 stolen bases, joining Darryl Strawberry, who had 26 homers and 19 steals in 1984.
Later that day, Nate Lavender became the seventh Mets rookie to pick up a win this season, alongside Nolan McLean, Zac Thornton, Jonah Tong, Chayce McDermott, Jonathan Pintaro, and Jefry Yan. That gives the Mets the most rookies on a team to earn a win this season, and it also ties them for the third-most in franchise history, behind 1995’s nine and 1983’s eight.
Friday’s note belonged to Brett Baty, whose 114.0-mph double in the fourth inning off Sean Burke was the third-hardest-hit ball of his career and the fourth-hardest-hit ball by a Met this season.
Saturday delivered two more eye-openers. Christian Scott struck out five or more batters for the 11th straight outing, putting him among just seven MLB pitchers with an active streak that long, alongside Dylan Cease (31), Jacob Misiorowksi (24), Jesús Luzardo (13), Gerrit Cole (12), Tarik Skubal (12), and Gavin Williams (11).
Luis Torrens, meanwhile, kept his power surge rolling with his sixth homer in 10 games, something he’d never done before in his career. He became the first Mets catcher with six or more homers in a 10-game span since Francisco Alvarez from July 4-19, 2023.
Before this stretch, Torrens had hit 10 homers in 204 games with the Mets.
Sunday’s numbers stayed loud. Luis Robert Jr.’s fourth-inning single came off the bat at 114.6 mph, and even though he has played only 52 games this season, he now leads the Mets with eight batted balls at 110 mph or harder. Brett Baty and Juan Soto are tied for second with seven apiece.
Nolan McLean added another sturdy outing, logging his 17th start of six or more innings this season, which is tied for seventh-most in the Majors. That total is already tied for fourth-most by a Met in a season since 2020, trailing only Chris Bassitt’s 23 in 2022, Max Scherzer’s 19 in 2022, and Luis Severino’s 18 in 2024.
Over his last 10 starts, McLean has thrown 59.1 innings with a 1.97 ERA. Over the last 10 seasons, only Jacob deGrom, Zack Wheeler, and Max Scherzer have had a 10-start stretch for the Mets with at least 59 innings and an ERA under 2.00.
The White Sox also carved out a strange bit of history by walking off the Mets twice in one season, making them only the second interleague opponent to do it. The Twins did it first in 2004, with walk-off hits from Michael Cuddyer and Mike Ryan. After being walked off by the Cubs on April 19 and then twice by the White Sox in this series, the Mets were walked off three times in one state for the first time since 2021, when they lost twice to the Marlins and once to the Rays.
And one last oddity for the pile: only six Mets players have ever collected a hit, a walk, a hit-by-pitch, and reached on error in the same game. Asdrúbal Cabrera is the only one to do it twice, on April 15, 2016 in Cleveland and May 3, 2017 in Atlanta. He’s one of only 41 players to pull off that trick twice in his career, a group that includes 13 Hall of Famers and Albert Pujols.
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