LOS ANGELES – The thing about Daniel Murphy, ol' Murph, there's always been a couple things you could count on.

One, a great at-bat. Or two or three. Sometimes it seems the man was born with a bat in his hands, like recently. Especially recently. The at-bats become surgical, and maybe the ball falls and maybe it doesn't, but there's a coolness about the process, in the way he moves in the box, then chooses a pitch and hurts it.

Two, something, let's say, memorable on the basepaths. There'll be an interesting decision, one you could see forming in his head and then transmitting through his body, then finally to his legs, and suddenly before oh-no has formed in your throat off he goes to a place that will be fiery or heroic or both along the same 90 feet.

Along comes Game 5 of the National League division series, and with it an evening that concluded with the New York Mets rushing the infield, 3-2 winners Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, a date with the Chicago Cubs at Citi Field two days off. Along comes a good portion of the pitching the game would expect from Jacob deGrom and Zack Greinke, and the teetering of a gluttonous franchise – the Los Angeles Dodgers – that for its roster overhaul and free spending won two fewer games in the regular season and won one more game in the postseason. For them, a division championship and a first-round loss would not be cause for optimism, but further evidence that something – or a handful of someones – is missing. For them, on a Thursday night in mid-October when they were outplayed and outthought, this was disaster.

View photos Daniel Murphy's homer in the sixth inning was the deciding run in the Mets' victory. (AP) More

That suited the Mets just fine, for they are a completely different story, as their financial recklessness is of a much more personal nature. The baseball though, that's found its legs, behind a pitching staff that grew up at the same time, and the rare bold play at the trading deadline, and in the final few hours three great at-bats from Daniel Murphy and one brave journey from second base to third base.

"A baseball player," Mets manager Terry Collins said of Murphy, which is how, if he could, Terry Collins would send people to heaven, with that sort of glowing reference.

"Oh he's good," the man at the gate would say. "Collins says he's a baseball player. Next!"

Murphy's first hit, in the first inning against Greinke, was a double that drove in the Mets' first run. His second hit, a single, led to him scoring the Mets' second run, after one of those trips around the basepaths that was genius and crazy and quintessentially ol' Murph. His third hit was the home run that beat the Dodgers, a fastball he'd hunted off Greinke for six pitches in the sixth inning, got slightly out in front of, and hooked into the right-field bleachers.

Because, yeah, it's nice to have all that pitching, but somebody's got to, you know, score.

And when the Mets had advanced to their first NLCS since 2006, having buried the dysfunctional Washington Nationals in the regular season and then beaten Clayton Kershaw and Greinke once each in a matter of six days (three runs were enough both times), the man who carried them – offensively – the last few feet was Murphy.

When the ball left with an echo with one out in the sixth inning, and when shortly thereafter Murphy became convinced it would land far enough and left enough to be a home run, the bat floated from his right hand.

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