It’s not about how you start—it’s about how you finish. And on Wednesday night, New York Mets rookie Carson Benge proved that lesson in dramatic fashion.
Despite a couple of early miscues, the 23-year-old right fielder delivered the game-winning hit in the 10th inning, lifting the Mets to a walk-off victory and showing the kind of mental toughness that defines the game’s best players.
The night didn’t begin smoothly. Just two batters into the game, Benge misjudged a drifting liner in right field—a play that should have been a routine flyout. Instead, it went for a double and led to two unearned runs off starter Christian Scott.
“I missed it,” Benge said candidly after the game. “I should’ve got it.”
His second tough moment came in the seventh inning. After Bo Bichette looped a game-tying single into shallow right, Benge was thrown out trying to score from third on a double steal—a risky gamble that didn’t pay off.
“They just executed and played catch,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza explained. “I feel like we could’ve gotten a bigger lead, and it looks like Benge broke back at the release. Just another learning experience there. Our coaches went up to him after and said, ‘Hey, you’re going to get another big at-bat. Just move on to the next play.’”
That advice proved prophetic. When Benge stepped to the plate in the top of the 10th, he was calm and focused. On the second pitch he saw, he ripped a line drive back up the middle for his first career walk-off hit—a moment that erased the earlier frustrations and electrified the home crowd.
“It’s just about trying to stay where you are and not letting the moment get too big,” Benge said. “You treat it like every at-bat. You’re always trying to hit the ball hard, have a quality AB, and that’s all I was trying to do in that situation. It felt amazing—definitely a first, but indescribable.”
The resilience Benge showed Wednesday mirrors his entire rookie season. After a slow start, he’s found his groove, and with two more hits on the night, he’s now batting .333 with seven RBI and a .900 OPS in May.
For a young player learning to bounce back from mistakes, Wednesday night was a masterclass in finishing strong—and a reminder that in baseball, the next at-bat is always the most important one.