“Whether you realize it or not, you might put a little extra pressure on yourself to get off to a hot start with a new team,” Olson stated. “I didn’t know it at the time, but I realized it last year. I think [Murphy] had just a little bit of that early on. It’s natural.”
It’s seemingly a short-term affliction for some like Murphy, who recorded three extra extra-base hits to assist the Braves earn a 9-3 win over the Royals on Saturday at Kauffman Stadium. The veteran catcher tallied two doubles and homered for the second time in 5 days.
“He’s on a nice roll here,” Braves supervisor Brian Snitker stated. “He’s a strong man.”
Murphy, Olson (2022) and Austin Riley (’22) are the one different Braves to file no less than two doubles and no less than one homer twice in a sport inside the similar season since 2010. The solely different Atlanta gamers to do it twice throughout any season since 2000 are Brian McCann (’09) Marcus Giles (’03) and Chipper Jones (’01 and ’03).
McCann (July 26 and 30, 2009) and Murphy are the one members of this group to have achieved the feat inside a span of only one week.
This early success has helped Murphy discover consolation with the membership that acquired him from the A’s this previous winter. The deal reunited him with Olson, who the Braves gained through a March 2022 commerce with Oakland.
“Getting hot is always good, but doing it early shows the rest of the guys that you belong with them and can help,” Murphy said. “I’m doing well right now. I just want to try to stay consistent.”
To say Murphy has been red-hot is perhaps an understatement. He has gone 9-for-19 with six doubles and three dwelling runs going again to Monday. His manufacturing has helped the Braves win 5 straight video games and compensate for the absence of their different veteran catcher, Travis d’Arnaud, who hasn’t performed since struggling a concussion on April 8.
Murphy’s sizzling stretch hasn’t been a fluke. Seven of the 11 balls he has put in play since Monday have had an exit velocity of 100 mph or increased. This contains every of Saturday’s three hits. His first-inning RBI double got here off the bat at 106.9 mph, and his two-run double within the third was clocked at 111.3 mph. The fifth-inning homer he hit off Royals starter Kris Bubic lower via a robust wind at 105.8 mph.
“[Murphy] is one of the better guys I’ve ever met,” Braves beginning pitcher Bryce Elder stated. “He’s just real straightforward. You know what you’re going to get from him every day. To see him start to swing it, we knew it was coming, but to see it this way, it’s awesome to watch.”
Murphy’s contributions in Saturday’s win included serving to Elder navigate via 5 1/3 innings, and now Elder has a formidable 1.53 ERA via three begins.
While the current flurry of extra-base hits have drawn probably the most consideration, Murphy has additionally lived as much as his repute as an elite defensive catcher. His 16.3 defensive fWAR (Fangraphs’ Wins Above Replacement Model) ranks second amongst all MLB catchers for the reason that begin of 2022, trailing solely the Phillies’ J.T. Realmuto (18.8).
Though Murphy got here to Atlanta as a 2021 Gold Glove Award winner who was extensively considered one of many sport’s greatest defensive catchers, some Braves followers didn’t approve of their workforce buying him in a three-team commerce that despatched bat-first catcher William Contreras to the Brewers.
Some of those self same followers made noise when Murphy went 3-for-20 in his first seven video games with Atlanta. But the critics have been fairly quiet since Monday, when the 28-year-old catcher tallied two doubles and smacked a walk-off homer to cap a 10-inning win over the Reds.
“To me, that was kind of his coming-out-to-the-Braves party,” Olson stated. “I think he’s going to be taking off here.”
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