New York Mets vs San Diego Padres

New York Mets 4-2 San Diego Padres — Citi Field, Queens, NY

Carson Benge crushed a two-run homer in the fourth inning and the New York Mets tacked on two more in the eighth to beat the San Diego Padres 4-2 on Wednesday afternoon, securing a three-game series win at Citi Field.

Rookie outfielder Benge provided the decisive blow against Padres starter Michael King (8-9), parking a 1-0 pitch to left field in the bottom of the fourth. It was Benge's 15th home run of the season and scored Bo Bichette, who had walked, to put the Mets ahead 2-0.

How it unfolded

Both starters traded zeroes through three innings. Mets left-hander Robert Stock — making his third start since being recalled — worked around traffic in the first and third, stranding three Padres baserunners with strikeouts. He punched out six across 4.1 innings of one-run ball.

San Diego halved the deficit in the fifth. Xander Bogaerts led off with a double to deep left, and two batters later Fernando Tatis Jr. greeted reliever Jonathan Pintaro with an RBI double into the gap, scoring Bogaerts to make it 2-1.

The score stayed there until the eighth, when the Mets broke it open against San Diego's bullpen. With Jeremiah Estrada on in relief of King, A.J. Ewing walked and Francisco Lindor singled. A force-out throwing error by shortstop Sung-Mun Song on a Bichette grounder allowed Ewing to score. Jared Young then singled to centre, plating Bichette, and the Mets led 4-1.

Gavin Sheets delivered a pinch-hit RBI single off Kodai Senga in the ninth to pull San Diego within 4-2, but Senga got Jackson Merrill to fly out to end it.

The turning point

King had navigated through the Mets lineup efficiently through three innings, but the fourth unraveled when Bichette drew a two-out walk. Benge, the Mets' first-round pick from 2024, jumped on a fastball and sent it over the wall in left. The Padres never led, and King's quality start — 6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 4 K — was undone by one swing.

Key performers

• Carson Benge (NYM): 2-for-3, HR (15), 2 RBI, R. The rookie provided the game's biggest hit and also made a putout in right field. Player of the match.
• Robert Stock (NYM): 4.1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K. Stock kept the Padres off the board despite allowing five baserunners, striking out the side in the third.
• Michael King (SD): 6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, HR. King threw 100 pitches and did enough to win on most days, but the Mets' two-out damage in the fourth decided his night.
• Fernando Tatis Jr. (SD): 1-for-3, 2B, RBI, BB. Tatis drove in San Diego's first run with a double and drew a walk, but the Padres managed only five hits total.

By the numbers — interpreted

The Padres struck out 12 times against Mets pitching — Stock fanned six himself, and the bullpen added six more over 4.2 innings. San Diego's 5-for-30 (.167) batting line was their second-worst in a game over the last two weeks. The Mets, by contrast, put the ball in play consistently against King, who generated 10 ground-ball outs but could not escape the fourth-inning walk that preceded Benge's homer. The Padres' lone error (Song, eighth inning) proved costly, turning a potential inning-ending double-play grounder into a run-scoring force-out.

What it means

The Mets (57-70, fifth in NL East) won their fourth straight game, matching their longest winning streak of the season. They host the Atlanta Braves next on 20 August. The Padres (68-59, second in NL West) dropped two of three in Queens and remain 8.0 games back of the division lead. They travel to Miami to face the Marlins starting 20 August. For a San Diego team fighting for a wild-card spot, the series loss to a sub-.500 Mets side is a missed opportunity.

Verdict

A tight pitchers' duel decided by one bad pitch from King and one costly error from a San Diego infield that has been uncharacteristically shaky. Benge's emergence as a middle-of-the-order threat has been a bright spot for a Mets team playing spoiler down the stretch.