Carson Benge celebrates with his teammates in the first inning of Tuesday’s game against the Royals. Adam Hunger / AP Photo
NEW YORK — This was a Royal mess.
The Kansas City Royals committed three errors on one Carson Benge comebacker in the first inning at Citi Field on Tuesday night, turning a ball that traveled maybe 50 feet into three New York Mets runs.
With two on and two outs in the first, Benge tapped a ball between the pitcher’s mound and the third-base line. Starter Seth Lugo pounced on it, but his rushed throw against the speedy Benge skipped past Jac Caglianone’s glove and into foul territory, allowing the first run to score.
The runners had already stopped at second and third when Caglianone uncorked as wild a throw home as you’ll likely ever see, with the ball nearly entering the visiting dugout, allowing Bo Bichette to scoot home and Benge to move to third.
Nick Loftin recovered the ball and tried to get Bichette at the plate, but his throw was late and slid past Carter Jensen, permitting Benge to finish his cycle of the bases.
(The third throw is cut off here, but was also wild.)
— Tim Britton (he/him) (@timbritton.bsky.social) July 7, 2026 at 7:34 PM
The play was scored a single with an E1, E3 and E5 on Kansas City’s throws.
This is just the second time in the last decade that a team has committed three errors on a single play, according to Elias Sports Bureau. Last September, the Miami Marlins achieved the ignominious feat in the second inning of a 2-0 loss to the Detroit Tigers.
The Royals and Mets, who matched up in the 2015 World Series, each entered Tuesday’s series opener with the second-worst records in their respective leagues.
Connections: Sports Edition
Spot the pattern. Connect the terms
Find the hidden link between sports terms
Play today’s puzzle
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nytimes.com ’
