DENVER \u2014 Coors Field is supposed to be an extreme hitter\u2019s park, but the New York Mets aren\u2019t exactly the most extreme hitters in baseball at the moment. On a chilly Monday afternoon ahead of a spring snowstorm, both the Mets and the Colorado Rockies had some cool bats for the first five innings of play.<\/p>\n
Just ask Mark Vientos, who nearly had two home runs, but both fell just short of crossing the left-field wall.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Vientos would contribute plenty in a four-run sixth inning, but it was Carson Benge who got ahold of a ball and sent it over the fence for a leadoff homer that sparked the difference-making rally. The Mets won the series-opener 4-2, using that big sixth inning, two openers in front of David Peterson, and four innings from the lefty who calls the Denver area home.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a good sign,\u201d said manager Carlos Mendoza. \u201cNot only for the team, but good for [Benge] to start playing with some confidence defensively and offensively. We [had] nothing going on until he finally was able to put a really good swing [on a pitch] and get us going there with a homer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scoreless heading into the sixth, Benge took a 1-0 cutter from right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano 436 feet over the right-field fence for his third long-ball of the season. Francisco Alvarez and Luis Torrens then hit back-to-back doubles to give the Mets a 2-0 lead. Sugano walked Juan Soto, and with two outs, Vientos finally got his big hit.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
A line drive single to center field cleared the bases, giving the Mets a 4-0 lead, and Vientos two RBI.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were hitting the ball pretty hard all day. Mark had a few that were grabbed at the track. Soto hit one really hard, but I feel like it was just anything that would have sparked the lineup,\u201d Benge said. Any sort of hit walk \u2014 anything would have got them going.\u201d<\/p>\n
While his defense has shone, the rookie outfielder hasn\u2019t had an easy time adapting to big league hitting. He can hit the ball hard, and he\u2019s remained a tough out with the way he fouls off tough pitches and works counts, but he\u2019s also looked overmatched.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Even after going 1 for 2 with a home run and a walk against Colorado, Benge is still only hitting .192 on the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say there are definitely a little growing pains in there,\u201d Benge said. \u201cI\u2019m sure there are still a few and many to come, but just being able to step in there with my same level of confidence I\u2019ve always had is definitely a big thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
There have been signs of progress in recent games. He came into the game hitting .310 over his last eight starts, including a double and two walks Sunday in Anaheim. Play-by-play man Gary Cohen called a diving catch he made in the ninth inning Sunday \u201cpulchritudinous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Benge made another one of those catches in center field Monday, helping out right-hander Austin Warren by robbing Tyler Freeman of extra bases. In the seventh, he misread one, resulting in an RBI triple by Jordan Beck. Benge got twisted up and tripped up, and the ball went well over his head and a few feet to his left. Willi Castro scored to break up the shutout attempt.<\/p>\n
Benge joked that it canceled out his first catch, but still took it in stride.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not counting the one today, since I fell on my face,\u201d he said. \u201cJust a bad read. Can\u2019t get them all, but I\u2019d like to have that one back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Peterson then gave up a single to Kyle Karros that scored Beck, cutting the Mets\u2019 lead in half.<\/p>\n
Rockies\u2019 righty Juan Mejia struck out the side in the top of the eighth, keeping the game within reach for the home team. Right-hander Craig Kimbrel then gave up a one-out triple to Mickey Moniak in the bottom of the inning, but retired the next two to keep the save opportunity intact for closer Devin Williams (four saves).<\/p>\n
With the way Peterson has had trouble making it through the order three times this season, the solution has been to use an opener. Right-handers Huascar Brazob\u00e1n and Warren pitched the first two innings, getting through the first seven hitters. Peterson, who grew up in nearby Aurora, held his hometown team to two earned runs on three hits, and struck out six for his first win of the season (1-4).<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key is attacking the strike zone,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cHe pounded the strike zone today with everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rockies (14-22) swept the Mets (13-22) last weekend at Citi Field, so this was a decidedly better performance from the Mets than the last time the two teams met. Weather threatens the rest of the series, but at least the Mets can take solace in the fact that they\u2019ve won three of the first four games of this nine-game, three-city trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a testament to us just staying with our work,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cKnowing that it\u2019s a long year, and if we continue a good process, we\u2019ll eventually see some good results.\u201d<\/p>\n
____<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER \u2014 Coors Field is supposed to be an extreme hitter\u2019s park, but the New York Mets aren\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2396],"tags":[2109,5,1443,5805,52,1009,847,759,83,1347,1381,134,39318,5214,228,101,3568,4,1690,61,2548,4203,775,7903,129],"class_list":{"0":"post-690631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-austin-warren","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-carlos-mendoza","11":"tag-carson-benge","12":"tag-colorado-rockies","13":"tag-coors-field","14":"tag-craig-kimbrel","15":"tag-david-peterson","16":"tag-devin-williams","17":"tag-francisco-alvarez","18":"tag-jordan-beck","19":"tag-juan-soto","20":"tag-kyle-karros","21":"tag-luis-torrens","22":"tag-mark-vientos","23":"tag-mets","24":"tag-mickey-moniak","25":"tag-mlb","26":"tag-new-york","27":"tag-new-york-mets","28":"tag-newyork","29":"tag-newyorkmets","30":"tag-tomoyuki-sugano","31":"tag-tyler-freeman","32":"tag-willi-castro"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116519869025154349","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}