Let’s Talk About Daniel Murphy
As most baseball fans know, Daniel Murphy plays 2nd base for the New York Mets, and is a massive reason as to why the Mets are playing in the World Series this year. Murphy has hit a homerun in 6 straight postseason games (like…what???), including homeruns off of Clayton Kershaw (ya the guy who was so good that he won the Cy Young award AND MVP last year), Zack Greinke, Jake Arrieta, and Jon Lester. All who are kinda really good at pitching. Yes that is amazing. Everyone can see that. But, Murphy’s best, most influential play this postseason was probably missed by most casual fans.
I have played baseball my whole life, and really appreciate the intricacies of the game, like how a pitcher sets up a batter to whiff on an outside change-up, or how an outfielder takes two steps to his left before a pitch and then makes a running catch in the gap look easy. So, when Daniel Murphy went from first to third on a walk with 1 out in the 4th inning of game 5 of the NLDS against Greinke and the Dodgers, I WAS STOKED. It was the smartest play I had seen in awhile, and in a CLINCHER game against the game’s best pitcher. Murphy was knocked in on a sac fly to tie the game- a game in which the Mets went on to win ( on a homerun by who else…Murphy). Murphy’s smart base running completely changed the game, and had a huge impact on the Mets winning the game. But, the most amazing part is that anyone could have done what Murphy did.
With 1 out in the 4th inning, Murphy was on 1st base with Lucas Duda batting. Duda is a left-handed batter, and generally pulls the ball to the right side of the field. As a result, the Dodgers implemented a shift where they put three infielders on the right side of the infield, and moved their third basemen to where the shortstop normally plays. This is totally normal, and has happened hundreds of times this year. However, when Greinke walked Duda, the Dodgers fell asleep and casually began to walk back to their normal positions. Murphy realized this as he slowly jogged to second, and as he got close to the bag he started sprinting toward third base. The Dodger’s third basemen was not even halfway to third, and had his back to the sprinting Murphy. So he only realized what was happening as Murphy ran right by him (too late!). This play was absolutely critical. Greinke led the league this year in both ERA and WHIP as a starter, meaning that it is very rare that he allows a run, or even people on base for that matter. The next batter hit a short, foul, fly ball down the line in right, which turned out to be a sac fly as Murphy raced home after it was caught. Greinke got the next batter out too. So, if Murphy only went to second on that walk, which is what every other runner would do, Greinke would have not allowed a run in that inning.
As I said before, this was particularly amazing because anyone in the MLB could have done what Murphy did. It did not take blazing speed, but simply an awareness of what was happening. It was a heads up play that Murphy took advantage of. Without it, the Mets could easily have lost to the Dodgers and would not be in the World Series this year. Everyone is going to remember his amazing streak of homeruns, but this one smart, base running play might turn out to be the most influential play of the postseason. I see you Daniel Murphy, and I applaud you.
