Saturday, September 19 · Mets 10, Phillies 3
The finding ·
Benge breaks Mets rookie hits record, 156
The one thing
Carson Benge’s 156th hit, a check-swing roller that died just inside the third-base line in the eighth, broke Pete Alonso’s Mets rookie record of 155.
We went in expecting this to be mostly a record about playing time. Hits pile up with at-bats, and in sixty-four seasons only eleven Mets rookies have ever been handed 450 of them.
It isn’t that. Benge got to 156 in 566 at-bats. Alonso needed 597 to reach 155. And among those eleven rookies, Benge’s .276 average is second only to Jay Payton’s .291 in 2000.
He also set the club’s rookie record for three-hit games. One outlet reported it as his eleventh, then the next morning as his twelfth. The old record was ten, so it’s a record either way.
All of it on the afternoon the Mets retired Carlos Beltrán’s No. 15.
Thrown out
“The most productive rookie hitter in Mets history.”
Hits are one statistic. Alonso’s rookie season had 53 home runs, and Benge has 19. Most hits by a Mets rookie is a real record and a good one. It doesn’t need the upgrade.
How we got there
Every Mets rookie season from 1962 through 2025, defined as a player entering the season with no more than 130 career at-bats: 1,511 seasons by 845 players. Eleven reached 450 at-bats. By batting average among those eleven: Payton .291, then Benge .276, Cleon Jones .275, Ron Hunt .272. Three-hit games: the previous record was ten, shared by Alonso in 2019 and Jason Phillips in 2003. Benge’s 2026 line from Baseball Reference, through the record game: 566 at-bats, 156 hits, .276.