The Man, the Myth, the Legend: Daniel Murphy

*stats updated as of 10/20/15

Cameron Goz
Sports Editor

      Daniel Murphy, second baseman for the New York Mets, is an above-average hitter with middling power and poor defense, and he is putting together one of the most legendary postseasons in both Mets and MLB history. Throughout the regular season Murphy hit a single home run off of a lefty this year, fourteen total. Now, through seven playoff games, he has three home runs off of lefties, with five total, tying a Mets record with Mike Piazza. In 903 career regular season games, he homered in back-to-back games only once; he has now homered in four straight games. The ridiculous stats do not stop there either, with the four game streak only trailing Carlos Beltran’s five gamer in 2004. Beltran is quite possibly the best postseason hitter in MLB history, only magnifying the incredible production “Murph” has achieved. Murphy is also only the third player to ever hit a HR off the regular season leaders in strikeouts, ERA, and wins, and the first to do that off three different pitchers. While outlandishly impressive, the names attached to these home runs are even more mind-boggling: two off of 3-time Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw, one against Cy Young front-runner Zach Greinke, a bomb off postseason stud Jon Lester, and a golf shot off Jake Arietta, who just had the best second-half in MLB history.
      When Cy Young ballots are placed next month, Murphy will have homered off the top three vote-getters in the National League (Arietta, Greinke, and Kershaw) in not only the same postseason, but in the same week. These types of mythical, fairy-tale like runs can be predicted, but in this case not much could have pointed to this type of production, especially considering that it is Murphy’s first playoff appearance. He simply wants it more, and what a coincidence it is that the goat that has haunted the championship less Cubs for 107 years was named Murphy.

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