Unlike last Sunday’s game-tying, ninth-inning home run in Atlanta, Daniel Murphy wasn’t trying to go deep this time.
“Did you see my first two at-bats?” he asked sarcastically. “No, I was not trying to go yard. I was very fortunate to even hit it on the barrel after my first two at-bats.”
The Mets second baseman, indeed, was out of sorts in his first two trips to the plate against Masahiro Tanaka, flying out weakly to left field and grounding out to first base. But in his third time facing the high-priced ace from Japan, Murphy gave the Mets the lead for good, blasting a hanging slider deep over the right-center field fence, as they evened the Subway Series at two games apiece with a 5-1 victory at sold-out Citi Field Friday night.
“It was nice because of the way their starter can throw the ball,” Murphy said. “He’s as tough as they come. You really got to lock in on him. He chewed me up and spit me out a couple of times tonight, there’s no doubt about that. It’s really nice to start the series that way [with a win].”
Murphy just wanted to get a good swing on the ball in his third time facing Tanaka, unlike his first two at-bats, when he saw a combined three pitches. Murphy said he made an adjustment before he stepped to the plate in the sixth inning, getting his front foot down quicker at the suggestion of hitting coach Kevin Long.
“I was able to see the ball just a little bit better,” Murphy said.
He was more patient in the sixth, working the count to 2-2 and fouling off a 92-mph sinker, before finally getting a pitch he could handle, and he launched it for his 12th home run of the season.
It was a big offensive night for the longest-tenured Mets. Lucas Duda, perhaps snapping out of his funk, homered and doubled. David Wright had two hits. Murphy homered and tripled. On a night when Yoenis Cespedes went 0-for-4 to extend his mini-drought to 0-for-13, the Mets found offense from other sources.
“That’s what your veterans are supposed to, they’re supposed to step up,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “Your star players, when you’re on these big stages, that’s when they come through.
“Tonight our guys got big hits. I mean, Tanaka was really pitching great. I bet if you talked to him, he probably would tell you he made two mistakes, and they were both hit out of the ballpark.”
