Zack Greinke glared out to right field, shook his head and massaged a baseball, trying to figure out what he had done wrong. Daniel Murphyhad turned on a low fastball, sent it screaming into the seats and flipped his bat aside, as if he knew all along that the ball was gone as the Dodger Stadium crowd watched in stunned silence.
Murphy, the Mets’ workmanlike second baseman, rounded the bases with a stoic look, his jersey covered in dirt. The Mets’ dugout exploded in cheers. Jacob deGrom, their starter, looked relieved. And Mets fans everywhere could exhale.
Murphy’s sixth-inning solo blast will forever be remembered in Mets lore. It lifted them to a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers and over Greinke, perhaps the best pitcher in the major leagues this season, in the winner-take-all Game 5 of this National League division series.
“Adjectives are going to fall short of how this feels right now,” Murphy said in the middle of the Mets’ clubhouse as he was drenched by teammates spraying champagne every which way and yelling at the top of their lungs.
This group of Mets had already won the franchise’s first division title since 2006. Now, despite having to face the Dodgers’ aces, Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, two times each in a five-game series, the Mets advanced to the league championship series to face the Chicago Cubs. The Mets need four more wins to reach their first World Series since 2000.
The Mets’ performance Thursday showed that they have the mettle to compete with a powerful Cubs offense. Murphy had a hand in all the Mets’ runs, deGrom pitched six gutsy innings, and Manager Terry Collins made all the right moves, handling deGrom with the right touch before making two aggressive moves with his bullpen to seal the win.
DeGrom had beaten Kershaw with a masterly performance in Game 1, compiling 13 strikeouts in seven shutout innings. But this outing may have been more impressive, given the magnitude of the moment and the way deGrom had to fight for every out.
From the start, deGrom did not look like himself. His command was off, and his fastball was a bit slower than usual. The Dodgers hit four consecutive singles in the first inning, scoring two runs. After the fourth hit, an Andre Ethier blooper, the crowd roared as deGrom yelled into his glove and the Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig practically danced in the dugout.
At that point, all the pressure seemed to be on the Mets. This was their first winner-take-all game in nine years, their first since Carlos Beltran struck out against the Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright to end the 2006 N.L.C.S. That was a flash point in Mets history — most fans could tell you where they were when that happened.
This game seemed as if it would become another painful memory. DeGrom allowed two more runners in the second inning, two more in the third, one in the fourth and another in the fifth. Three times during that stretch, Collins had Noah Syndergaard, a rookie starter with no experience as a reliever, start to warm up in the bullpen. Using Syndergaard that early would have been like pulling a fire alarm.
As deGrom navigated into and out of trouble, General Manager Sandy Alderson kept leaving his seat and pacing, as if he were an anxious fan watching the game from home.
Collins even went out for a mound visit during the third inning, with runners on the corners and one out, and told deGrom to focus on getting a double-play ball. Three pitches later, deGrom used a curveball to get Enrique Hernandez to hit into a weak double play.
“I was close four times,” Collins said during the celebration. “Four times. He was one batter away four times, and I had him coming out of the game. And he kept getting them out.”
DeGrom threw 57 of his 105 pitches with runners in scoring position, but he lasted six innings, compiled seven strikeouts, and did not allow another run after the first inning.
As deGrom kept the Mets close, Murphy carried their offense. After Murphy doubled in a run in his first at-bat, Greinke retired the next eight batters. Then, in the fourth inning, Murphy singled and scored the Mets’ second run, thanks to his alert base running.
With Murphy on first, Lucas Duda worked a walk, and Greinke kicked the dirt on the mound as the Dodgers’ infielders milled about. Murphy touched second base, peeked to make sure no one had called timeout and then sprinted to third, which had been left vacant when the Dodgers shifted to defend against the left-handed Duda.
“That’s just one of those plays where you should know better,” Ethier, the Dodgers’ right fielder said. “You should be on top of it — not just those guys in the infield, but all around. We let that play slip. I even put my head down.”
Murphy scored on a sacrifice fly, tying the score, 2-2, which seemed like a gift with the way Greinke was throwing.
Greinke struck out five of the first six batters he faced, and he made most of the Mets’ hitters look foolish. Yoenis Cespedes, David Wright and Duda finished the game 0 for 10 with seven strikeouts. Wright and Duda did not provide much offense in the series: They combined to go 3 for 34, strike out 18 times and drive in just two runs.
That made Murphy’s performance in the series all the more remarkable. He crushed two home runs against Kershaw, one in Game 1 and another in Game 4, and he collected three hits in Game 5, including that majestic home run that finally gave the Mets a one-run lead.
“Zack and I were dancing around all night,” Murphy said, explaining that he spent each of his at-bats locked in a mental battle, trying to figure out Greinke’s next move.
“I got the heater finally in the spot that I was looking for,” Murphy said, “and fortunately I didn’t miss it.”
As the Mets’ celebration wound down, champagne dripped from the ceiling, bottle caps and corks lay strewn, and a small lake of alcohol formed in the middle of the carpet. Collins had champagne burning his eyes, but he did not seem in too much of a hurry to find a towel.
Before Game 2, Collins had bumped into Sandy Koufax in a hallway in the recesses of Dodger Stadium. They were old friends. Collins had gotten his managerial start in the Dodgers’ organization; he had fond memories listening to Koufax’s stories in spring training.
Koufax and Collins chatted for a few minutes, and as Koufax left, he stopped and complimented Collins to two reporters standing nearby.
“Is he the manager of the year? I don’t know. I’m not voting,” Koufax said, grinning, with a twinkle in his eye. “But I think so.”
Every move Collins made in Game 5 seemed to work. After making Syndergaard warm up four times, Collins brought him in, and he pitched a clean seventh inning. Then Collins called on Jeurys Familia, the closer, to get a six-out save for the first time all year. Familia retired all six batters he faced; in fact, he retired all 16 batters he faced in the series.
Familia struck out Kendrick for the final out and hopped up and down on the mound as his teammates mobbed him, giving Dodgers fans their own lasting image to remember.
An earlier version of this article misstated the way in which Carlos Beltran struck out to end the 2006 National League Championship Series, giving the St. Louis Cardinals a four-games-to-three victory over the Mets. It was looking, not swinging.
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