Serenity now, celebration later.
There in a nutshell you had Daniel Murphy’s final at-bat last night, as this wild ride of an opening week continued for the unbeaten Mets.
“I said a prayer, not to necessarily do good, but to just take away the anxiety,” Murphy said after his RBI single in the ninth gave the Mets a 4-3 victory over the Nationals at Citi Field. “I felt blessed that I was able to kind of slow the heart rate down.”
There was nothing crisp about this one, but the Mets will take it after surviving a rocky Mike Pelfrey start and using 3 1/3 shutout innings from the bullpen to reach 4-0 for the first time in five years. Murphy was the recipient of a towel filled with shaving cream wielded by teammate Justin Turner after leading the Mets to their first comeback victory of the season.
Mike Baxter scored the winning run after falling down rounding third base and crawling back to the bag one batter before Murphy. Third-base coach Tim Teufel had flashed the stop sign as Baxter, running from first base, considered a dash for the plate on pitcher Henry Rodriguez’s throwing error on Ruben Tejada’s sacrifice bunt with nobody out. The ball trickled into foul territory behind first base.
“The last thing I wanted to do was have the first out at home,” Teufel said. “When I saw them reach down for the ball, that’s when I decided to put the brakes on for him. [Baxter] did a good job of pulling up and getting back to third base.”
Baxter had walked leading off the ninth. After Rodriguez threw away Tejada’s bunt, putting runners on second and third, the stage was set for Murphy.
“I was kind of running through the situations, what they might do and I figured they would pitch to me, even with the base open,” Murphy said. “If they get me out then they can walk David [Wright] and go after Ike [Davis]. I’m kind of running through the situation and trying not to hyperventilate.”
Adding to his heroics, Murphy also made a big defensive play in the top of the ninth, robbing Ryan Zimmerman of a single to get a force at second for the final out.
Jon Rauch (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings to put the Mets in position for the win.
Pelfrey survived 5 2/3 innings in which he allowed three earned runs on 10 hits and one walk. The righty, who tied a career high with eight strikeouts, rebounded after falling into a 3-0 hole in the third inning. But after surrendering consecutive singles with two outs in the sixth, Pelfrey’s night was finished. Miguel Batista got the inning’s final out, then passed the baton to Ramon Ramirez.
For Pelfrey it could be deemed a positive step after an awful 2011 season and brutal spring training.
Kirk Nieuwenhuis’ first major league home run, a two-run shot in the fourth inning, made it 3-3 and gave Pelfrey new life. Josh Thole drew a two-out walk against Edwin Jackson before Nieuwenhuis homered off the Modell’s sign in right — a blast that would have been in play before the fences were drawn in this season.
“Two strikes you’re just trying to kind of back everything up and shoot something over the middle,” said Nieuwenhuis, who homered on a 2-2 pitch. “It felt great, especially at the end of the game [the team] coming through like that, it’s pretty special.”