PHILADELPHIA — This could have been Bryce Harper's moment, with the go-ahead runs on second and third and two outs in the eighth inning at Citizens Bank Park on Monday night. But Harper was gone, hit by a pitch in the knee and replaced by Chris Heisey, who drew a two-out walk in his place.
The moment fell instead to Daniel Murphy. It is a testament to his prolific season that he may have been a more promising option than the slumping MVP, at least in that moment.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Murphy singled to drive home the go-ahead runs in the Washington Nationals' 4-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. The Nationals had five hits Monday night. Murphy had three of them. The Nationals are 10 games over .500 again because of it.
“He’s carrying our team. He’s doing everything possible in our lineup to keep us going,” said Harper, whose right knee contusion will be reevaluated Tuesday. “. . . And the biggest thing I see with him is he stays with his approach, stays with his routine every single day. That’s the impressive part.”
Tanner Roark left in line for a loss but became a winner because of Murphy's efforts — and because Jonathan Papelbon earned his 14th save, though rather dramatically. Jayson Werth's two-out single tied the game in the eighth after Danny Espinosa and Ben Revere walked. Then came Murphy, who drove in three of the Nationals' four runs in their 31st win of the season.
As a part of his relentless effort to deflect credit for his spectacular start, Murphy often cites “traffic on the base paths” as the catalyst for his success. His teammates are getting on base before him, and their presence puts pitchers in pressure situations, he says. Put under pressure, pitches often make mistakes.
His commitment to redirecting attention to teammates is as firm as his commitment to the daily routine that teammates like Harper have praised all season. So why is his simple approach — get a pitch in his zone and take his “A swing” — working so often this season? Murphy did not change his answer Monday.
“High-leverage situations for the pitcher is [something] always I think favors the hitter. When they’re in high-leverage situations, you can wait to get a good pitch to hit,” Murphy said. “That last at-bat I had, there was a lot of traffic out there. I was just the beneficiary of it tonight.”
But what about his first two at-bats, which also resulted in hits?
With no one on in the second, he laid the barrel of the bat on the first pitch Jeremy Hellickson threw him and sent it into the left field corner for an opposite-field double. That was Murphy’s 43rd hit of the month. The franchise record is 47.
No one got on in front of Murphy in the fourth inning, either. He hit an 0-1 pitch out to right field for his 44th hit of the month and eighth homer of the season. His career high is 14 homers. That hit made Monday his league-leading 25th multi-hit game of the season. He has played in 50 games. He finished the day hitting .368 with no one on.
“He’s . . . on fire,” Roark said, momentarily lost for words. Murphy’s third hit turned Roark from a tough-luck loser in the seventh to a winner in the eighth.
But while Murphy seemed unaffected by it, the fact that none of his teammates were on base early in Monday’s game proved problematic.
Hellickson kept them off balance with eight strikeouts in the first six innings. The Nationals got two hits in that span, both from Murphy, who has been the most consistent hitter in a relatively inconsistent lineup this season. The Nationals pursued Ben Zobrist to play second base instead. They tried to trade for Brandon Phillips. In the end, they signed Murphy. Where would they be without him?
“I don’t know,” Nationals Manager Dusty Baker said. “We wouldn’t be close, especially offensively. But you don’t know who else we would have had, but he certainly couldn’t have been any better than Daniel Murphy.”
Roark kept the Nationals in the game and left after seven trailing 2-1. Harper left in the seventh after Hellickson hit him with a pitch flush in the side of his front knee to start the inning. He took first base and eventually got doubled up on Murphy’s line out to left.
Harper admitted he was in pain after the game, though he and Baker both said they would have to evaluate Harper’s knee in the morning to know his status moving forward. Neither seemed overly concerned about long-term trouble.
An inning later, Werth’s single tied the game. Murphy’s single put the Nationals ahead and gave him his 45th hit of the month, the most by any National League player in a month since Melky Cabrera had 51 in May 2012.
Then came Papelbon, whose old team threatened to spoil another save for the veteran. He had blown two saves this season entering Monday, one of them here against these Phillies. Maikel Franco and Ryan Howard doubled to lead off the inning and cut the Nationals’ lead to one.
Papelbon struck out the next two batters. Then Tyler Goeddel lined out — to Murphy, who finished Memorial Day hitting .395 and two hits shy of the franchise record in a month. The month is not over yet.
