Padres’ reckless baserunning vs. Mets makes Carson Benge a hero after four disastrous outs

There’s no other way to say it. The Padres gave away four outs at home plate in two innings and lost 2-1. Carson Benge deserves the highlights. The Mets rookie unleashed two outrageous throws from right field, including a 103.9 mph rocket that erased Manny Machado. He looked like he channeled his inner Fernando Tatis Jr. and played the position like home plate belonged to him. It’s strange that the Padres kept applying for entry anyway.

The first inning should have buried Mets starter Nolan McLean. Jake Cronenworth and Machado reached, Ty France dropped a single into shallow right and the Padres had New York wobbling immediately. Then third-base coach Bob Henley sent Cronenworth.

Benge gathered the ball and fired a 99 mph one-hopper to the plate. Cronenworth was out comfortably. There was one out when the play began, meaning San Diego could have held him at third and kept the inning alive with the bases loaded. That send was indefensible. At the same time, it shouldn’t come as a surprise from a third base coach known as “Bob Sendley.”

Bob Henley’s aggressive sends backfire against Carson Benge

Jackson Merrill followed with another single to right. “Sendley” waved Machado home and Benge threw another missile.

Okay, so the second send actually made more sense. There were two outs, the runner was moving on contact and Benge needed an exceptional throw. The problem is that he made one. And Machado is hardly a burner. Benge had just introduced himself about a few moments earlier by throwing Cronenworth out with room to spare. A scouting report wasn’t needed for this instance.

It takes a lot of effort to have a four hit inning with zero runs to show for it. Things became even more ridiculous in the second. San Diego loaded the bases with nobody out, only for Luis Rengifo to bounce into a force play at home. Fernando Tatis Jr. finally pushed a run across with a sacrifice fly. Cronenworth then singled to left, and Xander Bogaerts charged through a stop sign before Mets rookie A.J. Ewing threw him out at the plate. What are we even doing at this point? 

Four of San Diego’s first six outs came at home, and three were supplied by the Mets’ rookie corner outfielders. Call it aggressive if you’re looking for an excuse. But it was reckless baseball.

The recklessness also wasted Walker Buehler’s best effort in a Padres uniform. Buehler allowed two runs on two hits across six innings, retiring 17 of the final 18 batters he faced. Kyle Hart followed with two scoreless frames. The Mets finished with five hits and did nothing offensively after the first inning.

Instead, the Padres turned seven hits and five walks into one run. Their only scoring play was a sac fly. By the time the offense settled down, McLean had settled in. The early chaos vanished, and San Diego spent the rest of the evening chasing runs it had already thrown away.

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