Category: Sports News

Carson Benge’s MLB career hasn’t quite started as planned. 

The rookie took the league by storm to earn his spot with the Mets out of big-league camp, but hasn’t quite been able to carry that success over to the regular season thus far. 

Benge has just six hits and he’s struck out 14 times over his first 46 at-bats. 

He has been showing more positives at the plate of late, though, picking up hits in three straight before putting together another 0-for on Sunday. 

The youngster is still just 3-for-29 so far in April, but he thinks this strong homestand is a sign of good things to come. 

“I feel like, particularly over the homestand, I had really good at-bats,” he told Dan Martin of the New York Post. “I feel it’s just a matter of time for everything to click, and I’m gonna be -- and we’re all gonna be -- rolling.”

Even with these struggles, Carlos Mendoza praised the fact that Benge keeps finding ways to contribute each game. 

Sunday, it was with his glove out in center. 

With two in scoring position and two outs in the fourth, the 23-year-old came flying in to rob Denzel Clarke of a two RBI knock with a spectacular diving play in shallow center. 

The Mets, of course, were still swept as they suffered their fifth straight loss but Benge’s heroics helped Freddy Peralta off the hook and keep things close. 

“It felt great to have my pitcher’s back,” he said. 

“The ball is hit, it’s soft contact, it was like that’s probably going to fall in,” Mendoza added. “But the jump that he got, the way he went after the ball and the dive, it was pretty incredible.” 

WHAT A CATCH BY CARSON BENGE TO SAVE TWO RUNS! pic.twitter.com/KfhgOeRM0H

— SNY (@SNYtv) April 12, 2026

The Mets are calling up veteran outfielder Tommy Pham before their three-game series with the Dodgers begins in Los Angeles on Monday night, per a report from Will Sammon. The 38-year-old signed a minor league deal with the organization in late March.

Pham played in a handful of games with the Low-A St. Lucie Mets over the past few days, a relatively short ramp-up to get him ready to return to major league action. Having spent the majority of the 2023 season with the Mets, Pham has been a slightly-below-league-average hitter since the team traded him to the Diamondbacks that year. Over the course of the 2024 and 2025 seasons, Pham had a 93 wRC+ in 927 plate appearances with the White Sox, Cardinals, Royals, and Pirates.

There’s no news yet on the corresponding move that will clear a spot for Pham on the active roster, but the Mets have a few candidates. Carson Benge has struggled to the tune of a 33 wRC+ in his first 52 major league plate appearances, Brett Baty hasn’t been much better with a 51 wRC+, and Ronny Mauricio was only called up a few days ago, having spent the majority of this season in Triple-A Syracuse.

The Colorado Rockies have had the most up-and-down season so far. They were swept on the road by the Miami Marlins; they then took two of three from the Toronto Blue Jays; they took one of three against the Philadelphia Phillies in the Home Opening series; swept the Houston Astros at home; and then were swept in a four-game road set by the San Diego Padres.

There have been some close games and there have been some blowouts — and the Rockies have been on the winning and losing side of both outcomes.

With that in mind, I hope you answer me these questions three:

1. Who has impressed you the most so far this season?
2. Who has surprised you the most so far this season?
3. Who concerns you the most so far this season?

Let us know in the comments!

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

The Sunday Night Baseball curse continues. After shutting out the Atlanta Braves last night, Tanner Bibee and the Cleveland Guardians weren’t able to take the rubber match from Chris Sale.

It wasn’t for a lack of hits that the Guardians lost, something strikingly different from last season. Cleveland, in fact, had a hit in every inning that they faced Chris Sale. Chase DeLauter and José Ramírez pieced together some quality at bats, but could never cross home plate.

In the top of the first, CDL and José hit back-to-back one-out singles. Chase had a great jump on José’s hit, going from first to third, leaving second base open for José to steal. In the top of the third, a force out and a single had runners on the corners that were, again, left stranded. Rhys Hoskins was the final out for both innings, making up for it in the top of the sixth.

With what was looking like a shutout looming, Rhys Hoskins got Cleveland on the board with a solo home run to center.

Hopefully Rhys’ next home run will come in a situation with runners on.

Other than that, this was a rough one. Bibee finished the night having allowed 8 runs on 11 hits in 4.2 innings of work. He walked 1 and struck out 4. Kolby Allard pitched 3.0 innings, allowing 5 runs on 8 hits and 1 walk. He struck out 1 batter. Hedges pitched for one out.

Chase DeLauter went 2-for-2 with a walk and a double before being pinch hit for. Rhys Hoskins went 1-for-4 with a HR. Daniel Schneemann went 3-for-4, keeping the offense alive at the bottom of the line up with 2 doubles.

Atlanta always has Cleveland’s number for whatever reason. I will take solace in the fact that this series came early this year, giving the team plenty of time to rebound and move on.

The team will travel to St. Louis to face the Cardinals in a three game series. Tomorrow’s games starts at 7:45PM.

The reports of the Braves’ offensive demise were greatly exaggerated.

A night after the lineup was blanked for the first time since last July, the Braves awakened with a vengeance, running away with a 13-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians to win their third rubber match of the season.

With the victory, Atlanta is the last team in the league to have not lost a series this season.

Atlanta finished with 19 hits, its third game with at least 15 this season and the most hits a major league team has had in a game this season. Nine different players earned a hit, led by a 4-for-4 night from Jorge Mateo and three-hit nights from Ozzie Albies and Mauricio Dubon.

The Braves’ offense handed Cleveland starter Tanner Bibee (0-2, 6.38 ERA) the worst start of his major league career. He let up a career-high eight runs and a career-high-tying 11 hits.

It didn’t get any better when former Brave Kolby Allard came out of the bullpen for Cleveland as Atlanta tagged him for five runs on eight hits over three innings of relief work.

The bottom four spots in the order played a big role in Sunday’s win, amassing a combined 12 hits and eight RBIs. Mauricio Dubon and Jorge Mateo opened the scoring with consecutive two-out RBI hits in the second before Ronald Acuña Jr. followed with an RBI double of his own to make it 3-0.

Dominic Smith added on with a two-run homer in the fourth (his third in 12 games and 31 at-bats) to extend the Braves’ lead to 5-0.

That alone proved to be more than enough for Atlanta ace Chris Sale (3-1, 3.27 ERA), who bounced back from a rough start last time out against the Angels to look like himself again in his fourth start of the season.

It wasn’t his sharpest outing. He allowed at least one baserunner in each of his six innings on the mound and scattered eight hits. But it may have been one of his more clutch starts, as he stranded seven runners by holding the Guardians hitless in six at-bats with runners in scoring position.

Sale’s only run allowed came on a leadoff homer from Rhys Hoskins in the sixth and he bounced back to retire the final three batters he faced.

Even with such a cushion thanks to Sale’s strong start, the offense kept piling on with a four-run fifth to open up 9-0 lead. After Drake Baldwin — the only starter to finish without a hit — lined out, five of the next six batters reached, highlighted by an RBI single from Albies, a two-run double from pinch hitter Kyle Farmer and another RBI hit from Dubon.

Just for good measure, Atlanta tacked on four more runs in the eighth, forcing Cleveland to bring catcher Austin Hedges into the game to get the final out in the ninth.

The freshly called-up Dylan Dodd carried things the rest of the way after Sale’s departure, tossing three shutout, one-hit innings to close out a stress-free win and earn his third career save.

The Braves remain at home to begin next week, kicking off NL East play with a three-game series against the Marlins before heading north for a weekend set against the Phillies.

Rangers 5, Dodgers 2

• And the Rangers take the finale.
• For the second straight game, Jacob deGrom gave up a first inning home run, and then didn’t allow any more runs the rest of the way.
• The previous time out, the homer was by the second batter of the game. This time, it was to the first batter of the game. Maybe next time, deGrom will give up a homer to the zeroth batter of the game, maybe in some sort of closed timelike curve, and shatter the laws of physics.
• The home run last time out was to Cal Raleigh. The homer in this game was to Shohei Ohtani. I guess if you’re going to give up first inning homers, at least you want to give them up to guys who are legit.
• Things were more or less under control for deGrom after the Ohtani homer that started the game. The Dodgers had runners on first and second with one out in the third, but deGrom got Kyle Tucker to strike out, and then, with Andy Pages up, there was a mix-up on the bases, with Shohei Ohtani, who was on first, thinking that Alex Call, on second, was headed to third on an 0-2 pitch called for a ball. Call wasn’t going, though, until Ohtani heading to second meant that he had to run, and the result was a TOOTBLAN to end the inning.
• Call and Ohtani ended up on first and second with two outs in the fifth, and Call went to third on a wild pitch, but Tucker once again struck out, and that was that.
• DeGrom generated 15 swings and misses in the game — six on the fastball, five on the slider, four on the change.
• DeGrom went six innings, picking up a Quality Start and keeping the bullpen from having to carry to heavy a load after Jack Leiter left in the fourth inning the previous night.
• Just a really nice outing from deGrom overall.
• Skip Schumaker went to Jacob Latz for the seventh, likely hoping to neutralize the Dodgers’ lefty-heavy lineup while getting a couple of innings from Latz. Latz ended up retiring just two of the five batters he faced, getting pulled for Cole Winn with a run in and a pair of runners on base. Winn fell behind Pages 2-0 before getting him to pop up to shortstop — with all three outs in the inning coming on pop ups to shortstop.
• Speaking of pop ups to shortstop…one of the four hits deGrom allowed came in the sixth inning, when Freddie Freeman hit a routine pop up to the left side of the infield. Josh Jung appeared, on the broadcast, to have been calling it, but then stepped away, apparently expecting Seager to catch it. Seager though Jung was going to catch it, and the result was a single.
• Per Statcast, that single was on a ball with an expected batting average of .000.
• Winn got out of the 8th, though he was not sharp — in all on the day, he threw 12 balls and 9 strikes. Winn walked Alex Freeland with two outs in the eighth, fell behind Dalton Rushing 3-1, got a strike swinging, and then threw a fastball that was called a ball.
• Good thing there’s ABS this year. Danny Jansen challenged the pitch, which was shown to clearly be in the strike zone, and instead of two on and two out with the tying run coming to the plate, Winn was out of the inning.
• Jansen challenged five pitches in all, with four of them being overturned. The final one was on a 1-2 pitch to Alex Call, who led off the ninth against Jakob Junis. The call was overturned, and Call was called out. Junis walked pinch hitter Will Smith on four pitches to alarm us all, but he struck out Ohtani swinging and, after falling behind Tucker 3-0, induced a 3-2 easy fly to end the game.
• The offense showed up, which was good, though there were definitely a lot of opportunities missed in the game.
• Texas picked up 10 hits and 10 walks in all, and you’d definitely expect more than five runs to come from that.
• Unfortunately, Texas hit into two double plays, had a caught stealing, and were 2 for 14 with runners in scoring position.
• Still, everyone had a hit except for Corey Seager, who drew a walk, and Danny Jansen, who drew three walks. Evan Carter homered, Josh Jung was 2 for 3 with two walks and a double, and Brandon Nimmo had a pair of hits.
• The win means that the Rangers remain in a tie in the American League West with the Athletics.
• Jacob deGrom’s fastball topped out at 98.6 mph, averaging 97.2 mph. Jacob Latz touched 95.4 mph with his fastball. Cole Winn’s fastball hit 96.1 mph. Jakob Junis’s sinker maxed out at 92.8 mph.
• Brandon Nimmo had a 104.4 mph single. Evan Carter had a 101.7 mph home run. Josh Jung had a 101.4 mph double.
• On to wherever it is that the Athletics play.

Carson Benge found a way to make himself valuable, even as he is among the many in the Mets lineup coming up short at the plate.

Sunday against the A’s, with the Mets down by a run, Benge made an excellent diving catch in shallow center to rob Denzel Clarke of a two-run single to end the top of the fourth.

“It felt great to have my pitcher’s back,’’ Benge said after the 1-0 loss. “I haven’t been the best out there the past few days. I’ve had a couple hiccups, but it’s part of it. That’s how you learn.”

The Mets are hoping Benge’s struggles — on both sides of the ball — are part of his learning process.

He went hitless Sunday as the Mets were swept out of Citi Field by the A’s to extend their losing streak to five games.

Benge is in a 3-for-34 funk, with nine strikeouts and four walks.

But with Juan Soto on the IL with a strained calf and Luis Robert Jr. still on a controlled playing calendar as the Mets try to keep him healthy, Benge continues to get opportunities.

Lately, he’s been surrounded by plenty of other slumping hitters.

“I feel like, particularly over the homestand, I had really good at-bats,’’ Benge said. “I feel it’s just a matter of time for everything to click, and I’m gonna be — and we’re all gonna be — rolling.”

And he insists he’s not overwhelmed by major league pitching or the pressure that comes with slumping — despite just 131 minor league games under his belt and having begun last year with High-A Brooklyn and finishing with 24 games at Triple-A Syracuse before he won the job in spring training.

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND METS STATS

“You double down on the process even when things aren’t going your way out there,” Benge said. “Sticking to what makes you good is a big thing. I’m just approaching all of this like I always have: as the same game, just that guys are a little bit better. That doesn’t change even if you’re not doing too well. You don’t let the outside get to you.”

And when you can, try to help on defense.

Carlos Mendoza called the catch, which came with runners on second and third and two outs in the fourth, “pretty incredible.”

“That was an awesome play by him,’’ Freddy Peralta said. “I couldn’t believe it. For a moment, I thought it was gonna hit the ground. He was prepared for that and made a great catch.”

“He had that jump off the bat,’’ Mendoza said. “It looked like it would probably fall in, and the way he went after that ball and the dive was pretty impressive.”

Since last we spoke, the Diamondbacks have been one of the hottest teams in baseball. What’s going right for them?

Wesley: Eduardo Rodriguez, Zac Gallen, Jonathan Loáisiga, Corbin Carroll, Ildemaro Vargas, Jose Fernandez, and the unfortunately now injured Lawlar and Moreno have all been key drivers of this early success, in my opinion.

Makakilo:  Two observations: 

• From 5 to 11 April, the Diamondbacks scored 5.2 runs per game, which is more than a full run higher than their average from last season. 
• From 5 to 11 April, the Diamondbacks relievers had 9 shutdowns.  Since the start of this season, they had 22 shutdowns, which was tied with the Pirates for the second most in the Majors.   

Spencer: They’ve been playing good ball against teams scuffling to start. In the best case scenario, this means we will hold tie breakers if necessary late in the season. 

James: The pitching has been digging deep to find a bit of quality and the defense has been bailing out some mistake pitches, especially for Sewald. The team has also looked like one that is never convinced they are out of a game, even down four, so they keep pushing. 

One thing that isn’t is Ketel Marte and Geraldo Perdomo. What do they need to change to get the bats woken up?

Wesley: Ketel homered in Saturday’s loss, so hopefully that means he’ll start heating up. As I commented recently, the league is clearly taking Perdomo a little more seriously now that he’s established himself as a much more credible offensive threat. Now Gerry needs to adjust to the league. Simple as that.  RIBBIT. (Side Note: the linked song could easily be reworked to be about Gerry, or used a walk up song)

Makakilo:  Perdomo.  This season his 98.6% zone contact percentage is a career high, while his 7.9% whiffs is near a career low.  Let’s look at two strengths from last season:   “Perdomo’s batting strengths include squared-up per swing and launch angle sweet spot percentage.” – Makakilo

• His squared-up percentage improved from 32.3% to 38.4%.
• His launch angle sweet spot percentage fell from 36.2% to 27.9%. 

Geraldo Perdomo is doing nearly everything excellently.  Perhaps if he could improve his launch angle sweet spot percentage, that would allow him to sustain his breakout from last season.  

Spencer: I think the cold is affecting Marte. And Perdomo is playing to his floor which is unfortunate but not entirely surprising. I trust he pushes through it and finds the sweet middle ground. 

James: Marte is pressing too hard now. He got off to a slow start, quite possibly due to the colder weather. But once those struggles started to carry on, he started pressing much harder. When batting righty now, he’s taking Paul Bunyan swings at any fastball near the zone. He needs to simplify things and take what they are giving him, even if it is just slapping the ball into open space. Once he starts getting some results, the rest will follow.

Perdomo just needs to not let these struggles get to him. He is still working the counts admirably. That’s his game. He isn’t always going to get the walk or the mistake pitch, especially now that the opposition is keying in on him. But he needs to stay within himself and to continue playing his game while at the plate. The league has adapted. It is time for him to adapt in response, but to not abandon what has gotten him where he is.

The bullpen has actually been decent. Is this sustainable, or is it a bubble waiting to pop?

Wesley: Yes, it is sustainable, but also yes, it’s a bubble waiting to pop. The only reason why I think it might be sustainable is some of those veteran relievers signed to minor league contracts over the winter, are actually showing some promising results initially in Reno. 

Makakilo:  Two reasons to think it is sustainable:

• After 15 games, the relievers’ innings per game and ERA were about the same as last season (3.47 vs 3.45 Innings per game, and 4.85 vs 4.82 ERA).
• The anticipated return of pitchers (both starters and relievers) from the injured list.

Spencer: Both. Could go either way. 

James: The level of results is indeed sustainable. But the performance levels of some of the pitchers, especially Sewald, is likely a bubble waiting to burst. Sewald is getting saves. But he is giving up entirely too much hard contact. Right now, balls bouncing off the top of the wall or finding themselves screaming into a glove that was barely moved are allowing Sewald “success”. As the weather heats up, those balls are going to leave the yard or make it through the infield. The pitching in general needs to start doing better at limiting hard contact. Continuing to allow exit velocities over 100 mph is not a recipe for extended success.

Jo Adell put on a masterclass in home run robbery. In your opinion was it the greatest defensive game ever?

Wesley: I don’t think there is a definitive answer to that question other than “Maybe?” and there’s a few problems with that question. The first problem here is that the data just isn’t there for us to actually compare performances across all of MLB history.  At best, we have about 20 years of solid defensive data out of the 150 years of pro baseball’s history. The second problem is that you can’t compare an outfielder’s defensive performance easily against catchers or the other infield positions easily. A shortstop, for example, is going to have so many more defensive opportunities compared to an outfielder. The third and final problem is that some of the stats we have don’t capture the difficulty of robbing a HR. Catch probability doesn’t factor in the height of the wall at all, which is why statistically the Jo Adell game doesn’t look all that impressive when it obviously is impressive. With all that said, I’d say it’s the best defensive performance in a game I’ve seen by an outfielder in the last 25 years. 

Makakilo:  I’m thrilled to know that the glove, which Jo Adell used in the 3 catches, will go to the Hall of Fame at the end of the season.  It gladdens my soul to honor an extraordinary achievement by a player very unlikely to reach the Hall of Fame.   

Spencer: It may well be. I tend to be a fan of amazing infield play over outfield, but what he did is incredibly impressive. Great to see. 

James: It was certainly among them. I know Stark tried to find an answer and had little luck in finding a solid one. It will certainly go down as one of the greatest ever and likely one of the greatest any of us will see in our lifetimes – until someone else does it next week, just because that’s how fickle baseball can be.

Besides baseball, what is your favorite summertime activity?

Wesley: Being able to enjoy the beautiful night’s sky without freezing my a** off. I’ve conveniently always been more of a night owl, so while southern Arizona gets hot during the day, it’s generally cooler at night as long as you aren’t deep in the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas. I live just southeast of Tucson, where it still gets quite chilly at night even when hitting triple digit temps during the day, while also having some of the darkest skies in Western North America that aren’t in the middle of nowhere. 

Makakilo:  Play pickleball.  I registered for two tournaments (one in April and one in June).  Each has random partners assigned in each round, so my expectation is mostly fun.    

Spencer: Homemade pizza and movie nights in a backyard. The ideal cookout style yard games, etc. absolute perfection. 
James: Saturday dinners with the close friends at my besty’s place. We do various themes and just chill with some adult beverages, good food, good friends, great vibes. Whenever it cools down, we’ll sit around the fire pit instead of the patio table. Just chilling and relaxing. Depending on the weekend, there is likely footy watching involved.