JABO: Daniel Murphy’s Most Surprising Home Run

by
October 19, 2015

The postseason always provides some surprising storylines, but this year, nothing has been more unexpected than Daniel Murphy turning into Babe Ruth. The Mets second baseman is mostly known for his extremely high rate of contact — he posted the lowest strikeout rate of any hitter in Major League Baseball this year — but has turned into a super slugger in the playoffs, hitting five home runs in the Mets first seven postseason games. While the team’s pitching staff is their greatest strength, Murphy’s success against the best pitchers in baseball is a big reason why the team is two wins away from reaching the World Series.

But even given his recent power surge, his home run off Jake Arrieta in the first inning of game two remains something to marvel at. Not just because hitting a home run off Jaker Arrieta is impressive, but because the home run was one of the least likely we’ve seen all year.

First, watch the home run for yourself.

Read the rest on Just a Bit Outside.

You Aren't a FanGraphs Member
It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.
We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.
2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.
9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.




 

Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.

29 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Dave42
10 years ago

I thought one of the more unusual things was that the pitch immediately prior to the HR pitch he hit out just foul. You rarely see a hitter hit two in the same at bat, much less a tough pitch against the presumptive Cy Young winner. Considering he’s taken Greinke, Kershaw and Lester deep as well, this is a surreal run he’s been on.

3
CircleChange11
10 years ago
Reply to  Dave42

If only he had broken his bat and torn some stitches loose on the foul home run.

Wonder Boy

-1
Roger
10 years ago
Reply to  Dave42

It really had the feeling that he was finding his range. I am surprised, and pleased, that anyone — even Arrieta! — is still trying to pitch him low and/or inside, considering the pull-happy approach he’s been taking on this late-season and postseason hot stretch. His bat is super-quick, ridiculously quick, inside right now but it seems like that makes high and away a bit of a weakness.

0