One Battle After Another

Here’s a free preview of the 2026 Holy Books roundup: It wasn’t Carson Benge‘s fault.

On Friday night Benge made not one but two sparking plays against the Dodgers, first nailing Shohei Ohtani at third when the best player in the history of the game tried to turn a one-handed excuse-me double into a triple, and then starting a perfect relay that erased Freddie Freeman at home.

Two outfield assists, the second setting a mild, very modern-era record of sorts: Benge’s throw came in at 100 MPH, the speediest tracked OF assist by a Met in the 11 years of Statcast. That’s a stat that struck me as equal parts pointless and entertaining; if you’re curious, it broke the record set about two weeks ago by Carson Benge.

So Benge contributed some nifty outfield play. That was good! Meanwhile, Sean Manaea pitched about as well as he has all year, leaning on his fastball and working aggressively, with welcome conviction behind everything he threw. That was also good!

But the Mets won a couple of battles — or at least tied them — while losing the war.

Not all of their shortcomings came with reasons for finger-wagging. The chief problem was that Roki Sasaki was really, really good, wiping out Met after Met with a splitter that was frankly dazzling. Veterans or rookies, capable hitters or somewhat suspect ones … it didn’t matter. They knew what was coming but the splitter was still untouchable.

Sasaki was really good — and so are the Dodgers. They kept coming at the Mets, as teams that know their business do, putting the leadoff hitter on base in seven out of nine innings. Baserunning misadventures? So what: They figured things would eventually break their way, and they did. In the seventh, Brooks Raley allowed a pair of gently struck singles to start the frame, then conspired with Francisco Alvarez on a sloppy rundown, getting Kyle Tucker at home but allowing Tucker’s teammates to wind up on second and third instead of first and second, which paved the way for a game-tying sacrifice fly from Ohtani. The Mets were still in the game, but an inning later A.J. Minter left a four-seamer middle-middle to Tucker, who crushed it for a fatal two-run homer.

Oh, and Juan Soto‘s calf flared up on him, so he exited in favor of beloved David Stearns import Jorge Polanco. Fantastic.

Good performances outshone by somewhat better ones, one team doing the little things better than the other team. Not the kind of thing that has managers overturning buffets or throwing bats into the showers to scare ’em (not that managers do either anymore), but enough for another humdrum loss in a season that’s filling up with them.