Looking back: Daniel Murphy makes costly error, Royals stun Mets with 8th-inning rally

This was a game story I wrote as part of MLB.com’s internship application test at the end of 2015. While I was not selected for the program, I saved this piece and eventually joined MLBAM as a reporter for MiLB.com in 2017. There are plenty of changes I’d make to this if I were writing it today (like having the final score much, much higher), but I left the piece the way I filed it. Although Daniel Murphy had many brighter moments during the 2015 playoffs, his retirement jogged my memory that I saved this gamer.

For much of the 2015 postseason, the Mets and their second baseman had rewritten Murphy’s Law. Everything that could go right would go right.

Daniel Murphy — and his surging bat — just about singlehandedly carried the Mets to their first World Series trip in 15 years. He drilled six home runs in as many postseason games (a new playoff record), made sparkling defensive plays and batted .529 in the NLCS, en route to winning the series MVP.

Murphy seemingly etched his name among the greats in New York City sports folklore. But baseball can be a fickle game, where one can go from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in an instant.

In a matter of seconds in the eighth inning of Saturday’s Game 4, with only five outs separating the Mets from an even series with the Royals, Murphy proved just that, going from playoff hero to possible World Series goat.

As Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer tapped a harmless grounder to the right side of the infield, Murphy came charging in to make the play, but the dribbler stayed down near the dirt and slipped underneath his glove and onto the outfield grass.

“I just misplayed it,” Murphy said. “It went right under my glove. They made us pay for it. It put us in a really bad spot and that’s frustrating.”

The error not only allowed the Royals to tie the game, but it also kept the door open for a team that looked down and out heading into the eighth. Kansas City, like it has done all playoffs, pounced on the opportunity and never looked back.

The Royals added two more runs in the inning, got two innings of scoreless relief from closer Wade Davis and held on for a 5–3 win, silencing a record Citi Field crowd of 44,815.

Kansas City, which has now come back to win seven times this postseason, holds a 3–1 series lead, and can clinch the World Series on Sunday when Edinson Volquez gets the start against Matt Harvey. The odds are indeed in favor of the Royals, as teams leading the World Series by a 3–1 margin have gone on to win 39 of 45 times.

“I don’t know, it’s experience. It’s character,” Royals manager Ned Yost said of his team’s come-from-behind effort. “It’s a group of really, really talented players. But a lot of it I think is a mindset. We’re in the biggest stage that you can play in front of and these guys are totally confident in their abilities.

“They’re as cool as cucumbers.”

This collective calm from the Royals, however, was overshadowed by New York’s youngsters in the early part of the game.

Rookie outfielder Michael Conforto powered the offense, driving in two of the Mets’ three runs with solo home runs, joining Gary Carter as the only players in team history to hit two home runs in one World Series game.

Conforto, with only 15 regular-season plate appearances against left-handers, drilled his second blast of the game off lefty reliever Danny Duffy.

“It’s humbling and it’s exciting,” Conforto said. “I’ll definitely remember those moments, the feelings I got on those two home runs is indescribable. You dream about those moments.”

Fellow first-year wonder Steven Matz, making his ninth major league start, did his part to keep an aggressive Royals team in check. He lasted five-plus innings, struck out five and allowed two earned runs before exiting in the sixth after a Lorenzo Cain RBI single.

All was well for the Mets, who held a one-run lead despite recording just four hits against starter Chris Young and relievers Duffy, Luke Hochevar and Ryan Madson. But in the pressure of the eighth inning, the wheels fell off for the Mets, while the Royals kept their foot on the gas.

Entering the eighth, Mets manager Terry Collins called upon setup man Tyler Clippard. Having already given up three runs in 5 2/3 postseason innings, Clippard’s best stuff again eluded him, and he issued back-to-back one-out walks to Ben Zobrist and Cain, driving Collins to bring in closer Jeurys Familia.

Familia had already blown a save opportunity in Game 1, and could not stem the tide on this night either. Hosmer’s slow roller ate up Murphy and the floodgates all but opened.

“I made a mistake that was far, far too costly,” Murphy said. “If I make that play right there, it’s second and third, two outs, give Jeurys a good chance to get out of the inning unscathed. And I didn’t make it.”

The Royals followed up with consecutive run-scoring singles from Mike Moustakas and Salvador Perez. A two-run cushion proved all the Royals would need.

“We’re just trying to put the ball in play,” Moustakas said. “Against a guy like Familia, that guy throws a bowling-ball sinker. And Hoz did a good job of putting the ball in play and make some things happen. It’s just kind of how the ball bounced today. It kind of rolled right for us.”

Things went right for Davis, too, who pitched two frames to earn his fourth save of this postseason. He worked around two singles in the ninth inning to finish off the game, the 14th straight postseason appearance where he has not allowed a run.

“What they did tonight, is what they’ve been doing the whole playoffs,” Yost said. “It’s a group of guys that have the utmost confidence in themselves. I don’t think at any point these guys thought that they were going to lose tonight. That’s just their mindset.”

As for the Mets, they find themselves in the unenviable position of being down two games heading into Game 5, a deficit no team has come back from since the 1985 Royals.

“You’ve still got to win four games,” Mets captain David Wright said. “So needless to say, our backs are against the wall and we need to come out and win, and it starts with tomorrow.”