NEW YORK -- Carson Benge’s dynamic Spring Training may have earned him a spot on the Mets’ Opening Day roster, but it did not include much extra-base pop.
It took him all of one game to correct that discrepancy. Benge’s first career hit was a solo homer off Pirates reliever Justin Lawrence in the sixth inning Thursday at Citi Field in the Mets' 11-7 win, making him the second Met to homer on Opening Day in his big league debut. Kazuo Matsui was the first in 2004.
Benge, the Mets’ No. 2 prospect and No. 16 overall in baseball, earned a spot on the Opening Day roster after batting .366 over 14 Spring Training games. But he had just two extra-base hits and no home runs, leading to questions about when his power might show up in-game.
Cut to the sixth inning Thursday, when Benge -- 0-for-2 on the afternoon -- smoked a Lawrence sweeper over the fence in right-center field. The ball bounced off an overhang in the home bullpen and landed in the visitors’ bullpen, resulting in an easy-to-retrieve souvenir.
Francisco Alvarez then went back-to-back with Benge by slugging his first homer of the season, a Statcast-projected 429-foot blast to left to give the Mets an 11-5 lead.