Here are photos of airborne Mets in last night’s game, courtesy of the Associated Press:

And here’s Murph, just because:

About Murph: Plenty of people were killing him last night for the run the Nationals scored in the 8th inning. Jason Bay attempted a sliding catch on an Adam LaRoche pop-up but it bounced off the heel of his glove, then Murphy wasn’t quick to cover second and LaRoche advanced.

First off, let’s not forget that Bay is hardly a rangy left fielder and that many Major Leaguers would have made the play pretty easily and without sliding. I suppose it’s easier to blame Murphy for a mental error than Bay for lacking the physical ability to make the play, but it’s not as if it was guaranteed that LaRoche would have been out at second even if Murphy were hugging the bag from the beginning. Also, Murphy was not responsible for the passed ball that moved LaRoche to third, allowing pinch runner Brian Bixler to score on a sacrifice fly.

Anyway, point is Murph is crushing the ball. All players make errors and we’re going to pick out and pick on Murphy’s because we have it in our heads that he’s a bad defender and we know he’s playing a new position. But when he’s hitting like this, you have to tolerate the mishaps knowing that he’s still producing more runs at the plate than he’s costing the team in the field.

Six in a row, huh? Probably shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves, but at least this will quiet the 120-loss set.