The Mets Just Did Something No NL Team Has Done Since 1919

Baseball is a 162-game grind designed to numb you to weird outcomes. You watch enough innings and you start filing things under "strange but not historic." Then a team does something that hasn't happened since 1919, and you remember what the sport can still produce.

The Mets just scored 10 runs in one extra inning.

What actually happened

It was supposed to be a tight game. The Mets led the Nationals 5-3, then watched Washington tie it up in the 7th and 8th. Both teams scored single runs in the 11th. Neither pitching staff had anything left. The kind of game where both managers are quietly hoping to get to the 13th without burning their starter.

Then the 12th inning broke.

Paxton Schultz retired one batter for Washington. Then six straight Mets reached base. Carson Benge — a shortstop who has now become the Mets' designated extra-inning hero — delivered an RBI single, then a two-run double. The Nationals committed four errors. They left 19 runners on base. They moved an infielder, Jorbit Vivas, to the mound just to get the inning to end.

Final: Mets 16, Nationals 7.

The 1919 part is wild

The last National League team to score 10 or more runs in a single extra inning was the 1919 Cincinnati Reds. That's the year the Black Sox threw the World Series. That's the year the Cubs were already 11 years removed from their last championship.

A full century plus seven years.

The last AL team to do it was more recent, but the NL version of this stat has been frozen since Woodrow Wilson was president. Major League Baseball has played thousands of extra-inning games since then. None had this.

Carson Benge has quietly become the most important Met

Manager Carlos Mendoza pointed out something that should not get lost in the chaos: Benge has now delivered the go-ahead swing in all three of the Mets' recent extra-inning wins. That's three games. Three swings. Three wins.

He's not the marquee name on the roster. He's not on a national broadcaster's must-mention list. But he's the guy who keeps coming up in the 11th and 12th with a chance to flip a coin and getting it right every time.

Mets shortstops have a long, complicated history in New York. Benge is writing a chapter the franchise didn't expect.

What this does to the Mets' season

This was New York's second consecutive extra-inning win and their sixth victory in seven games. They're now 6-4 in extra-inning games — the best mark in baseball this season. After a brutal April that included a 12-game losing streak and the firing rumors that surrounded Mendoza, this is the version of the Mets the front office paid for.

The NL East is wide open. The Braves and Phillies have both been inconsistent. If New York can keep finding ways to win the weird ones, they're going to be a real factor through June.

What this does to the Nationals

Nothing good. Washington's bullpen has been one of the worst in baseball, and Monday night was an extended argument for the prosecution. Moving a position player to the mound in the 12th of a one-run game tells you everything about where their pitching staff is. The rebuild is the rebuild, but rebuilds aren't supposed to look like this.

The bottom line

The Mets won 16-7, scored 10 of those runs in the 12th inning, and made baseball history nobody knew was on the table when the game started. Carson Benge is a name to start remembering. Carlos Mendoza just bought himself another month of breathing room. And the Nationals have to fly home knowing they used a position player to pitch in a one-run extra-inning game. Tuesday's going to be a long flight.