Murphy rattles Mets again in 11-4 rout
WASHINGTON » After watching his former team attempt a dramatic comeback the night before, Nationals slugger Daniel Murphy made sure they didn’t have the chance on Tuesday.
Murphy drove in five runs on four hits, and Bryce Harper had three hits and two RBIs to help Washington to an 11-4 rout of the New York Mets.
Murphy improved his career average to .405 against his only previous big league team. He’s now hitting .341 with 60 RBI after entering Tuesday second in the NL batting race.
“I saw it live and in person for five years,” Mets manager Terry Collins lamented. “You’ve got to locate or he’s going to get a hit.”
Joe Ross (5-3) allowed two runs over seven innings for the Nationals in his fourth consecutive start giving up two runs or fewer.
He also received at least 10 runs of support for a seventh start this season, as NL-East leading Washington pounded out 14 hits to win its third straight.
“We had two, and then in the
seventh or sixth or whatever that was, blew up and then we had 10 out of nowhere,” Ross said. “And I was like, ‘Oh, it seems like a regular start’.”
New York’s Seth Lugo (32) yielded four of his six runs in his fifth and final inning, and failed to pitch beyond the fifth for the first time since his return from injury in June.
Jay Bruce hit his 21st home run for the Mets, and Jose Reyes and Rene Rivera also connected for solo shots.
In his fifth start after missing two months with elbow inflammation, Lugo required only eight pitches to retire Washington’s first five batters. But he eventually walked two and allowed 10 hits, including five straight to open the fifth.
Wilmer Difo singled and scored from first on Bruce’s error fielding Harper’s single to right. Harper raced to third on the error and scored on Murphy’s second single of the game. Two batters later, Ryan Raburn doubled in two runs to make it 6-2.
“Balls in the middle of the plate and up in the zone,” Lugo said. “And good hitters are going to hit those.”
Murphy drove in two more on a single into shallow right, after relievers Erik Goeddel and Josh Edgin loaded the bases on three consecutive walks, making it 8-2.
“It’s a team-oriented approach to not give away atbats and to grind out every pitch,” said Murphy. “It was fun to watch the guys at the top of the lineup and we had great at-bats up and down the lineup.”
Ross allowed eight hits, walked three and let multiple baserunners reach in each of the first five innings. He finally pitched a clean inning in the seventh and finished throwing 114 pitches, his last one a sinking changeup to strike out Lucas Duda on an eightpitch at-bat.
A rare sombrero
With Tuesday’s 11:05 a.m. start, Nationals manager Dusty Baker elected to have Ross hit for himself in the bottom of the seventh with Washington leading 9-2. The result? A first-ever fourstrikeout game at the plate for the career .180 batter.
Leadoff list
Reyes’ homer was his 25th career leadoff home run, and 20th leadoff shot in a Mets uniform. That puts him one off the franchise record of 21 game-opening homers, held by current Mets outfielder Curtis Granderson.