Daniel Murphy, Max Scherzer continue their dominance of the New York Mets

NEW YORK — An archival dig finds numbers to match those of Daniel Murphy, New York Mets torturer du jour.

When the woeful first edition of the Mets played in 1962, Hank Aaron spent New York’s misery-bound opening season bludgeoning the 40-win Mets. Aaron hit .400 with nine home runs in 70 at-bats against them. His 28 RBIs that season remain the most against the Mets in a year.

Jay Hook, Roger Craig and Al Jackson headed that staff. None had an ERA better than 4.40 in 1962. Those Mets could only wistfully envision a time when Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom would front the rotation. Yet Murphy, 3-for-4 Saturday night in the Nationals’ 6-1 win, has turned this season into a flashback.

Murphy has hit .438 with six home runs and 19 RBIs against his former team this season, a throttling that is on par with Aaron’s first-season damage. The strength of boos from Citi Field fans have risen with Murphy’s batting average against the Mets.

What makes it a pill too big and bitter to swallow for Mets fans is this all could have been avoided. New York made a choice not to sign Murphy in the offseason despite historic playoff evidence that he was becoming one of the game’s better hitters. After Neil Walker, Murphy’s replacement, had early success, the move could even be rationalized. No longer. Despair has turned to capitulation. When Murphy hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning on Saturday, the Mets’ official Twitter account dispatched a tiny summation of the home fans’ view of Murphy. A single red-faced emoji was dispatched.

Murphy’s postgame reaction was predictable. He’d rather dine on concrete than talk about his personal success. The only thing more prevalent than line drives from Murphy this season are his repeated deflections of questions that pertain to him essentially putting an opponent’s face in the sand — in this case, one that chose not to pay him — then sitting on them.

Reporter: What does it mean to you to have all these RBI against the Mets?

“Well, you know, we’ve put ourselves in a position to win a series against a really good division opponent,” Murphy said. “Come out tomorrow with Gio [Gonzalez] on the mound, and hopefully we can win a series. Anything I’ve done is exciting because that’s a really good club. So anytime you come in here and put yourself in a position to win a series, you’re excited about it.”

Are you just seeing the ball well?

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Do you hear from the Mets during this? Any chirping?

“No. I think everybody’s too focused on the game. Again, this is a division opponent with two really good ballclubs going at it. You could feel the energy in the stadium. I feel like the focus is too lasered for anything like that.

What does it feel like to get booed?

“I don’t know. I guess that means you’re doing something to help your ballclub win a game that day against that team. So that’s the way I’ll look at it.”

Doubling the Mets’ angst is Nationals right-hander Max Scherzer. He has not allowed Murphy to be the lone oppressor of Washington’s current rival. His last four starts against the Mets have resulted in head-shaking numbers: 29 ⅔ innings, eight hits, two earned runs, six walks, 46 strikeouts. Those are good for an 0.61 ERA and 0.47 WHIP.

Twice on Saturday night Scherzer grappled with big moments. Runners on second and third and none out in the first inning only produced one unearned run for the Mets. An early win for Scherzer.

By the seventh inning, Scherzer’s pitch count had soared. He retook the mound having thrown 99 pitches already. Following a two-out walk, Nationals manager Dusty Baker walked to the mound. His hands remained at his sides as he approached Scherzer, who has one blue and one brown eye.

“When I went to the mound, I didn’t know what exactly what I was going to do,” Baker said. “Usually, I know what to do. I looked at Max and said, ’Ok, man, you got enough?’ Because he said he was still strong, wanted to go out that inning. Usually Max doesn’t lie. He’ll tell you when he had enough and he’ll tell you if he feels strong on that particular day. So, I went to the mound and I asked him do you have enough to get this hitter. I said, ’Which eye should I look at?’ And he told me, ’Look in the [expletive] brown eye.’ That was a good enough answer for me.”

A fly ball to left field finalized the inning and Scherzer’s night. He later confirmed Baker’s version of the conversation, adding that he thought the manager was going to remove him at the time. So, he turned to his “pitching eye” to convince Baker leaving him out there was the right thing.

At the end of the night, the Mets were five games back in the division. Murphy walked up the hall alone after he left the clubhouse. Coming out of the visitor’s side was awkward at first this season since he had spent seven seasons with the Mets coming from the other direction, which is why he’s still recognized so often at Citi Field. Two police officers walking toward Murphy stopped him. They asked for a photo, though wouldn’t have been blamed for attempting to handcuff him. The Mets have exhausted all other options.