Just Mets

The first quarter of the season can be characterized in a number of different words for Mets second baseman, turned third baseman and now back to second baseman Daniel Murphy.

Inconsistent is one term. Mysterious is another. Maybe it’s both: he’s an inconsistent mystery.

Chalk Tuesday night’s game as another night which fits that description. 

Murphy hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning to claw the Mets back to within two runs of a four run Cardinals lead. His 1-for-4, two RBI performance gives him a .321/.368/.481 line with seven doubles, two home runs and 13 RBI over his last 22 games.

But then came the next inning on defense.

In the sixth inning with runners at second and third and one out, St. Louis put on a safety squeeze with Michael Wacha. Erik Goeddel fielded the ball, and turned to throw to first. But, he couldn’t, because Murphy had failed to cover first as he was supposed to with the corners charging.

Instead, he was basically standing next to Lucas Duda, who was standing pretty much next to Goeddel.

Murphy giveth, Murph taketh.

“I should not be by home plate, ideally,” Murphy explained. “I was watching Reynolds over there. With the base open, I thought they may try that. When he broke, I broke. It was the wrong play.”

That’s true.

It’s not the main reason they lost the game last night. It might not have been a reason they lost at all. But it’s representative of the fundamental baseball which has simply been lacking from the Mets for the better part of a month, during which they’ve gone 10-14 and have seen their entire lead in the National League East be distinguished in the process. They haven’t executed much situational hitting, the pitchers don’t bunt particularly well, they are not a good defensive team (which was a known quantity coming into the season), and then there are these mental mistakes, which just make the whole thing worse.

“There are times that players try to do extraordinary things when the ordinary is all that’s needed. We’ll leave it at that,” Terry Collins explained after Tuesday’s loss.

A simple, escaping argument could be made that this is what Murphy is. It’s nothing new. He’s going to get his singles and doubles, be a cheerleader in the dugout, do what the club asks him to do without hesitation, and just cross your fingers and hope for the best when the glove is on his hand.

Ok. That’s fine when there aren’t any expectations for the Mets. But now there are.

Don’t get me wrong. Murphy has been a soldier for this organization since the day he made his debut. He’s been asked to go out to random positions, learn on the fly and embarrass himself in the process. He deserves credit for that. He has endured some really rough times, and rough individual moments.

But, as he’s shown on a number of occasions with his inconsistent mysteries this season, it’s hard to survive the weird mistakes when there’s money on the table.