Editorials

NLDS Game 5 Recap: Daniel Murphy’s Big Night Eliminates Dodgers

PAGES: 1 | 2

The Mets managed to make their best contact of the game in the third, only for it to amount in deGrom and Granderson grounding out. Greinke then got Wright swinging for the second time in the game, ending the inning with the Dodgers still leading.



Turner improved to 2-for-2 in the game, and 9-for-17 with a leadoff double in the bottom of the third. The double was Turner’s fifth in the series, which set a Dodgers franchise record for most in any postseason season. Turner stole third and Yasmani Grandal drew a walk, but both were stranded as Hernandez hit into an inning-ending 1-6-3 double play.

Murphy continued to be a thorn in the Dodgers’ side, leading off the fourth with a base hit. Compacting matters, Murphy went first to third on Duda’s one-out walk as the Dodgers were in a shift and no one went to cover third base.

Travis d’Arnaud’s sacrifice fly tied the game at 2-2 before Greinke managed to get out of the inning. deGrom walked Pederson to open the bottom of the fourth and later worked out of trouble by striking out Seager with Pederson standing on third base.

Turner’s sinking liner to left-center field got by a diving Michael Conforto for a one-out double in the bottom of the fifth. The Dodgers’ troubles with runners in scoring position reared its ugly head once more as Ethier popped out and Grandal was called out on strikes to end the inning.

Unable to cash in on their abundance of opportunities was magnified for the Dodgers when Murphy pulled Greinke’s 3-2 pitch into right field for a solo home run that gave the Mets a 3-2 lead in the sixth. Greinke allowed two-out base hits to Flores and pinch-hitter Kelly Johnson in the seventh and was removed from the game.

Luis Avilan came on in relief and retired Granderson to keep the Mets’ lead at 3-2. Noah Syndergaard took over for New York in the bottom of the seventh and retired the first two batters before walking Gonzalez. Regularly touching 100 MPH in the inning, Syndergaard pulled the string to strikeout Turner for the third out.

Jeurys Familia was called on in the eighth inning and he recorded the six-out save to send the Mets to the NLCS with a 3-2 win. The first-round playoff marked the second consecutive for the Dodgers.

Previous page 1 2

Staff Writer

Staff Writer features content written by our site editors along with our staff of contributing writers. Thank you for your readership.

9 Comments

  1. Highest payroll in the league….and we still can’t win crap…so frustrating every single season.

  2. Murphy’s big night… really? One home run. Really? How about you talk about something that matters… like Mattingly’s inability to lead the dodgers past the first round in the playoffs for the FOURTH YEAR STRAIGHT! 3 times with the Cy Young winner on staff!

    1. Daniel Murphy also had the RBI double in the first inning, went first to third on a walk, then scored the tying run.

  3. We need a power hitter behind AGon.Somebody like Paul Goldschmidt who delivers homers and rbi’s consistantly.It takes more than two great starting pitchers.

    1. What was Justin Turner doing? He broke the record for most doubles. He hit “lights out”. Did you watch the series?

      AGon’s been injured. The home run is all the Dodgers rely on, and because everyone was swinging for the fences no one connected to make contact. The Dodgers left men on base all season long because of that philosophy. Boring, old, unproductive base all, and it doesn’t put any pressure on the defense.

  4. Can you imagine if we had a manager like Joe Maddon? I’m sorry Don Mattingly has never won a World Series ring, but he needs to go. Our chances of re-signing Greinke may increase if we can bring in a creative, experienced baseball intellectual to lead the team. And why is Mark McGwire our hitting coach? If we had a real hitting coach, he’d have straightened out Joc Pederson by now. So frustrating… So depressing.

  5. Can I imagine having Joe Madden as Dodger manager? I most certainly did at the end of last season, but……

    There was a very good window of opportunity when the Dodgers hired Friedman to release Mattingly and his horrible hitting coach Mcguire and bring Maddon in as LA’s new Manager. I also imagine having Dee Gordon playing 2nd. base. No one is talking about it, but I will…if Dee Gordon was a Dodger, and with the numbers he produced and the fact that the Dodgers won their division, I’m positive he would have won the MVP of the National League. Most likely we would have won 10 to 15 more games too.

    This isn’t about Mattingly. After all the pitching staff he had to work with was abominable. He did alright. If I had to point the finger at Don it would be the lack of his staff to coach the little things like fundamentals. To put pressure on the opposing pitcher and their defense.

    I’ve only seen a handful of games this season because of the greed laden blackout but last night Mattingly actually managed a really good game. There was stealing, and bunting with very aggressive base running. Those are things you don’t often see here in La La Land. It was the lack of baseball fundamentals that cost them the game. It was Mcguire’s “swing for the fences ” mentality that has prevailed since his hiring. Sometimes you just have to make contact, step out of the box, rattle the pitcher and catcher, throw off their rythym. That is totally missing from this team. At least Peterson did do exactly that all 3 times he batted last night

    This whole season lies on one person, who in my opinion did a horrible, horrible job. I can’t say I’ve liked one move he’s made, well one, Kemp for Grandal. Otherwise Dodger’s president Andrew Friedman is a total bust!

    Not hiring Madden, trading Gordon, not resigning Greinke during spring training when he had the chance, getting rid of clubhouse cancer Puig, and bringing “less than average” Anderson, Woods & Johnson when this team needed a true number 3 starter is unforgivble.

    As I posted about 10 days ago, the Dodgers weren’t gonna go far in the playoffs this year either because Greinke and Kershaw are only two people and the pitching just isn’t there. Gawd we love our Dodgers but keeping it real it only magnifies just how weak this team is, especially in the playoffs. Dodger ownership pay Friedman to put just enough of a team to “Sell-Out” every night, beyond that the reality is quite different. For the love of Gawd Dodgers please get rid of this money ball system and get us a GM that rewards our stars and doesn’t trade them away for below average pitching.

    I know, trade Puig, and include Mattingly to Miami for Dee Gordon. That’s the 1st off season move to correct all the stupid shit Friedman has accomplished at the helm of my Dodgers. The 2nd move must be to remove the blackout. It’s gone on too long and we’ve had enough. And don’t wait till a week before spring training. It’s bloody ridiculous.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button