ATLANTA — When Carson Benge turned and pitched the final score of Monday’s Mets’ victory over the Braves into the stands at Truist Park, River Karr didn’t think much about it outside of the obvious. Despite being a Braves fan, I was happy to have the souvenir ball. It wasn’t until the trip back to Athens, Georgia, that Karr and his family began seeing posts on social media about the ball, which Kodai Senga had used to record the first save of his career. Karr’s uncle, a Mets fan named Richard Mikulka, posted on social media that he knew the whereabouts of the ball in question. “I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Karr said. The next morning, Mikulka received a call. Would he and his family like to return to Truist Park to meet Senga and Benge? After Karr’s father spent the morning shopping for new tires for his vehicle, the family made the more than hour-long drive back to Atlanta, where Senga and Benge left the clubhouse for photos and autographs. Karr’s cousin brought a baseball card for Benge to sign. The save was the first for Senga, a former starting pitcher who has become the Mets’ de facto closer in the absence of injured right-hander Devin Williams. “Whenever it’s your first time at something, you don’t think much about it at the time or while you’re still playing,” Senga said through an interpreter. “But when you go years and retire, I think it has a lot more meaning. So I wanted to have that.”
