In Thursday’s loss to the Cubs, we saw another pair of mistakes from Mets–now third baseman–Daniel Murphy.
After getting a two-out hit in the bottom of the 1st, Murphy was inexplicably picked off of first base on a snap throw by Cubs catcher Miguel Montero, ending the inning and extending the Mets scoreless innings streak. Then, in the top of the 5th, Murphy fielded a ground ball off the bat of Starlin Castro, spun and made a terrible throw that Lucas Duda couldn’t pick. The ball went into the stands, sending Castro to second base where he would later score on a bloop single.
It’s these kind of mistakes by Murph that make you scratch your head. Unfortunately for the Mets, they have to live with it.
This team has scored one run or less in 26 percent of their games this season, and lately, it’s gotten even worse as they’ve scored just 18 runs in their last 11 games and one run in their last three.
For a team with no offense to speak of right now, Murphy is the one and only bat in that lineup that can be counted on. He’s currently hitting .284 this season–about 30 points higher than the next highest active Met–with 16 doubles, four home runs, 29 RBI and 16 runs scored.
It can and should be said that making outs on the base paths and errors in the field when your team can’t score a lick is even more costly, and there’s absolute truth in that, but when it’s coming from your only offensive threat, you’re stuck.
Thursday certainly wasn’t the first time Daniel Murphy’s made lapses like that and it won’t be the last time, either. For the Mets, though, as they wait for their injured men to return and as they go day-by-day doing less and less at the plate, they have to live with it. They don’t have a choice.
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One response to “Like it or not, the Mets have to live with Daniel Murphy’s mistakes”
They may not have a choice right now, but Murphy will be gone soon. I used to like him, thinking he might become the next Jeff Kent (to be kept), but he did not hit with more power. Also problematic is that he does not run hard to first base most of the time (gee, maybe a fielder will bobble one of his grounders), catches too many popups with one hand (one almost popped out of his glove yesterday), is not a good fielder, overall (even at 3B), and makes dumb moves on the base paths too frequently.
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