I can hardly stand to watch another Daniel Murphy plate appearance, especially when there are men on base. The sour taste in my mouth and the anxiety that comes with each passing RBI single, double or home run is terribly indescribable.
Murphy did it again on Saturday night, driving in four runs to extend the Nationals’ first place lead to five games. And I guess what stings more than losing another game in the standings to Washington, is the person chiefly responsible – the former Met All-Star now turned Nationals All Star.
Of course the Mets also had their hands full trying to solve Max Scherzer. The four-time All-Star tossed seven dominant innings allowing just an unearned run on three hits and striking out nine. In seven starts against the Mets since joining the Nationals, he’s been a thorn in our side, boasting a 1.43 ERA in 50.1 innings with an overpowering 70 strikeouts and just nine walks.
But make no mistake about it, it’s Daniel Murphy who gnaws the most on our frayed nerves, not Max Scherzer.
It appears Murphy takes great pride in tormenting us at every opportunity if only just to show the Mets front office they made an egregious error in writing him off last season.
“He’s pumped up to play against us and show us we made a mistake,” manager Terry Collins said after last night’s 6-1 loss. “It’s human nature, and it’s part of the game. We’ve just got to make better pitches. We’re giving him balls to hit. You look at all the tape at the end of the game, and boy, they’re all good pitches to hit. We’ve got to do a better job.”
I hate to pick on any one player on the team after a loss, but that meatball Antonio Bastardo served up was just asking for trouble. Same pitch, same location, same result as the last time Murphy faced him. Murphy is already doing a good enough job bludgeoning us on his own… For crying out loud, we don’t need to facilitate it by putting the ball on a tee for him.
So that’s six home runs and 19 RBI against the Mets in just 12 games for the new Met Killer who sports .438 batting average against his former mates. Murphy only had five homers at the All Star break last season and he’s tripled that output.
You know another thing that irks me? That the Nationals not only got him, but did so at the unbelievable bargain rate of three years and $37 million dollars. Averaging just a little over $12 million a season, or to put it into context, only $1.5 million more than what we’re paying Neil Walker.
It wasn’t that long ago when Murphy was greeted at Citi Field with a two minute long ovation from Mets fans… But now it’s mostly a non-stop chorus of boos.
“I don’t know,” Murphy said about it. “I guess it means you’re doing something to help your ballclub win a game that day against that team, so that’s the way I look at it.”
Yeah… Whatever…
