Carson Benge began tonight’s game with a mistake that cost the Mets two runs, but he ended it with the game-winning hit in the tenth, as the Mets walked off the Tigers 3-2 in extra innings in a game that was full of oddities, but provided a glimpse into what the future may hold in Queens.
The Tigers got on the board right away in the top of the first. Kevin McGonigle led things off with a walk and then Dillon Dingler hit a fly ball that Carson Benge chased down in deep right, but the ball clanked
off Benge’s glove and rolled away from him, resulting in a double for Dingler and a second and third nobody out situation for the Tigers. Scott bounced back to strike out Colt Keith, but then Riley Greene laced a single to plate two runs. Two consecutive fly balls ended the inning and held Detroit to just two runs, which were the only ones Scott ended up giving up, though one could argue that he should have been charged with zero runs given the mishap by Benge that was not scored an error.
The Mets went down quietly in the bottom of the frame, but were able to scratch out a run against Framber Valdez in the bottom of the second. Vientos singled to lead off the inning and then with one out, Brett Baty singled to advance Vientos to third. Tyrone Taylor then hit a sharp grounder on which Kevin McGonigle made a nice diving stop and was able to throw Baty out at second, but Zach McKinstry threw wildly to first base, allowing Taylor to reach safely and a run to score. Unfortunately, A.J. Ewing struck out looking to end the inning and the one run was all the Mets would manage against Valdez until the seventh, despite multiple opportunities.
Christian Scott navigated a lot of traffic on the base paths, which inflated his pitch count, but he managed to limit the damage, in part due to five strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings of work and some timely double plays. The Mets had a good chance to tie the game in the third when Torrens and Benge led off the inning with back-to-back singles, each past a diving Zach McKinstry to put runners at first and third with nobody out. But then Bo Bichette hit a soft grounder to first on which Torrens was thrown out at home. Before striking out for the second out, Juan Soto fouled a ball off his ankle and was in visible discomfort, being attended to by the trainer for several minutes before stepping back into the box. He remained in the game for another plate appearance, but was later pinch hit for in a key situation, demonstrating pretty definitively that he was in too much pain to continue. The budding rally was fully quashed when Mark Vientos flew out to the warning track in center field to end the inning.
Huascar Brazobán deftly navigated the middle innings for the Mets and recorded seven outs without allowing a hit. But several other notable things happened. With two outs in the top of the sixth, McKinstry reached in what I can only describe as the strangest error I’ve ever seen by Mark Vientos at first base. Luckily, McKinstry rendered the error moot by being picked off to end the inning. In the bottom of the inning, Junior Valentine hallucinated a challenge signal from Brett Baty that never happened on a call that was obviously correct, resulting in the Mets losing their only remaining challenge. Both Baty and Carlos Mendoza argued with Valentine and they had a case since Baty never touched his helmet, but their pleas went unheeded and Baty ended up striking out. Neither team was happy with Valentine, who rung up Dingler on a pitch clock violation to end the top of the seventh for not engaging the pitcher.
The Mets finally broke through against Valdez in the bottom of the seventh. With two outs, Luis Torrens worked out a walk and then Carson Benge lined a soft single just over the third baseman’s head. That chased Valdez from the game and Kyle Finnegan came in the game to relieve him. Then, Bo Bichette’s batted ball luck finally turned around for once, as he dunked a bloop single into center to plate the tying run. But before one could even finish celebrating the game-tying hit, MJ Melendez came striding to the plate in place of Juan Soto. Another day, another injury for the Mets. It is worth noting, however, that SNY had a shot of Soto later in the dugout laughing with his teammates—hopefully a good sign.
Home plate umpire Junior Valentine caught flack again from Detroit’s dugout for requesting multiple times that the Tigers move their on deck circle out of the sightline of Luke Weaver, pitching the eighth inning for the Mets, who could not see the pitch clock. Despite these difficulties, Weaver worked around a single and a walk to pitch a scoreless eighth. Finnegan righted the ship in the bottom of the eighth with a 1-2-3 inning and Devin Williams worked around a walk to Kevin McGonigle and a stolen base to deliver a scoreless top of the ninth. Kenley Jansen continued his career long dominance of the Mets by striking out the side in the bottom of the ninth and send the Mets to extras for the eighth time this year.
Brooks Raley issued a two-out walk to Matt Vierling but held strong to keep the ghost runner from scoring in the top of the tenth to give the Mets a chance to win the game with speedster A.J. Ewing as the ghost runner. And win the game they did against Drew Anderson. Luis Torrens led off the inning and showed bunt, but tried a butcher boy play and hit it foul instead. He went on to strike out for the first out, but then Carson Benge laced a single up the middle to score his fellow rookie as the Baby Mets played hero in the walk-off victory.
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Big Mets winner: Carson Benge, +39% WPA
Big Mets loser: Marcus Semien, -14% WPA
Mets pitchers: +49% WPA
Mets hitters: +1% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Carson Benge’s walk-off single in the tenth, +30.7% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Riley Green’s RBI single that got the Tigers on the board in the first, -11% WPA
