ST. LOUIS -- What happened in the sixth inning, when Daniel Murphy failed to catch Daniel Descalso's soft line drive?
"I didn't catch it," Murphy succinctly said.
Daniel Murphy
#28 2B
New York Mets
2014 STATS
- GM69
HR5
RBI26
R45
OBP.354
- AVG.295
That E-4 ultimately resulted in two unearned runs in what became a 5-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night at Busch Stadium.
Both Terry Collins and Murphy absolved first baseman Lucas Duda of any wrongdoing on the play, although it still seemed as though Murphy could have recorded the out at first had Duda gone to the bag earlier. He didn't, presuming Murphy would catch the soft liner.
"That was not Lucas' fault," Murphy insisted. "Once I dropped it the play was over."
After one unearned run subsequently scored in the sixth on Kolten Wong's RBI single, the Cardinals still had runners on the corners. And the Mets had another chance to escape the inning.
But on Wong's steal attempt of second, Murphy never applied the tag after receiving the throw from Anthony Recker. He saw Descalso breaking from third for the plate.
Replays suggested Murphy could have tagged out Wong and ended the inning. Descalso ultimately retreated to third base. He scored on Peter Bourjos' ensuing infield single.
Murphy agreed Wong would have been out at second.
So why did he focus on Descalso instead?
"I saw him break," Murphy said. "It was a very poor decision by me."
Jonathon Niese saw the Cardinals take a 5-1 lead against him as a result of the blunders.
"You've just got to focus up and execute pitches. I wasn't able to," Niese said. "I left a lot of pitches over the plate and gave up a bunch of hits."
