MINNEAPOLIS — Daniel Murphy sat in the large ballroom here, at a downtown hotel, as the only Mets representative to the 2014 All-Star Game. Then again, the second baseman served as the only member of one of baseball’s hottest teams.
“I’ve got my feathers up a little right now,” Murphy said Monday, at the National League player media availability. “The Metropolitans are playing well. It was a lot of fun in the homestand. We’ve got some guys in San Diego on the beach right now, relaxing. It’s really nice to go into the break feeling good about the way you’re playing.”
Murphy’s Mets closed out the first half with an 8-2 run at home against Texas, Atlanta and Miami, improving their record to 45-50 and closing within seven games of the Nationals (51-42) in the NL East and seven games of the Braves (52-43) in the race for the second wild card. They therefore are long shots to pick up either postseason bid.
Yet with a 10-game road trip through San Diego, Seattle and Milwaukee to open the second half, the Mets will keep fighting for respectability if not revelry.
The 29-year-old Murphy, enjoying his first Midsummer Classic, expressed confidence his team can benefit from this break and pick up where it left off.
“You could always find a reason to want to keep playing or to want to stop,” he said. “I think for us, and for everybody, it comes at a perfect time. You need these four days to take a step back, to catch your breath. Because this is the stretch run.
“I was talking to [Braves second baseman] Tommy La Stella when they came in. I told him, ‘Try to find a place to just dig your heels in. This is the last blow you’re going to get before we play another 75 ballgames.’ I think in that sense, it’s nice that it came when it came. … It’s nice to go in feeling good about yourselves and get some rest.”
When pressed how he knew the Mets would resume their strong play when they take on the Padres on Friday at Petco Park, Murphy admitted: “I don’t. I can’t tell the future. I hope it does. We’re having good at-bats. I’m not reading any more into it than that. When Lucas Duda walks up there, he’s having really good at-bats. When Juan Lagares walks up there with runners on second and third and nobody out, he hits a missile right at the second baseman to get the run in and move the guy over.
“We’re kind of feeding off each other in the way the at-bats are going, and we’re just stringing them together.”
Murphy also noted the improvements of rookie catcher Travis d’Arnaud, starting pitcher Zack Wheeler and the young bullpen.
Along with his family and the Mets venerable vice president of media relations Jay Horwitz, Murphy arrived in Minneapolis late Sunday night and socialized with Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester, who shares agents in brothers Sam and Seth Levinson. In this maiden voyage, Murphy hoped to play it cool and cherish his time amongst the game’s best.
Asked whether there was one player in particular he wanted to meet, Murphy responded: “I don’t want to seem like too clingy, so I don’t want to have somebody in my mind. I’ll look like a little girl when I go up and talk to him — [to] Clayton Kershaw, or someone like that — ‘I’ve been wanting to talk to you forever!’ I’ve been trying to hold back. Let it flow.”
He hopes his Mets can do the same later this week.