ABOUT TIME!
deGrom & Co. finally get best of Murph
This looked more like the player Mets fans were used to than the one who had somehow been reborn in the nation’s capital as an MVP candidate.
In the fourth inning, Daniel Murphy lost a Lucas Duda pop-up in the sun, igniting a two-run Mets rally. In his first three at-bats, he failed to get the ball out of the infield against Jacob deGrom.
“He chewed me up and spit me out,” Murphy said after the Mets prevented a Nationals sweep with a 5-1 victory at Citi Field.
For once, the Mets got the better of Murphy, even if he ex- tended his on-base streak against them to 29 games.
His miscue in the fourth was what set the game in the Mets favor. He lost the Duda pop-up in the sun, setting the table for run-scoring singles by Travis d’Arnaud and Michael Conforto that gave the Mets a 3-1 edge.
“It went up and I felt like I had a bead on it. Then it went straight into the sun,” Murphy said. “I tried to work my way around it. By the time I did, I think the wind had shifted it a little as well, and I couldn’t make a play on it.”
Murphy wasn’t alone in looking bad at the plate. The rest of his teammates couldn’t do much with deGrom, either. The Mets righthander quieted the NL East leaders’ explosive bats, striking out six and allowing just three singles over eight masterful innings.
This still being Murphy against the Mets, his on-base streak remained intact. He doubled off Addison Reed in the ninth inning, pushing it to 29 consecutive games during which he’s batting .391 (45for-115) with 10 doubles, eight home runs and 29 RBIs.
“Murph doesn’t give at-bats away,” Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. “The real good hitters don’t give at-bats away. Murph’s a grinder. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, but he probably gets spe- cial motivation playing here. He’s played a bunch of games here, and he feels very comfortable in this ballpark.”
But it were his earlier at-bats he looked back with in regret. Murphy left Bryce Harper on third in the first inning, popping up to first base on a 96-mph fastball. And all he could manage in the fourth and sixth was a comebacker and a pop-up, respectively, against deGrom.
“My big at-bats had come earlier in the game already,” Murphy said, when asked about his ninth-inning double. “Unfortunately, it seemed like the game had gotten out of hand by that point. Jake did a real nice job against me and our offense.”