LOS ANGELES -- Inside a mostly emptied Dodger Stadium well after closer Jeurys Familia's final pitch, New York Mets fans congregating by the visitors' dugout chanted, "RE-SIGN MUR-PHY, RE-SIGN MUR-PHY."
Daniel Murphy, a free-agent-to-be, ensured that talk can wait for another day.
Murphy drove in two runs and scored the other as the Mets advanced to the National League Championship Series with a 3-2 win against the Los Angeles Dodgers in a winner-take-all Game 5 on Thursday.
Murphy's first-inning double against Zack Greinke plated Curtis Granderson to open the scoring. Then, despite a reputation for baserunning gaffes, Murphy had a critical play in the fourth. With the Dodgers heavily shifted to the right side of the infield, Murphy alertly hustled to third base on a walk to Lucas Duda. That put Murphy in position to score and even the game at 2 on Travis d'Arnaud's ensuing sacrifice fly. Murphy then homered in the sixth against Greinke for the decisive run.
Murphy became the second player in franchise history to deliver a go-ahead homer in the sixth inning or later of a winner-take-all postseason game. The other? Ray Knight in Game 7 of the 1986 World Series, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Murphy homered three times in the series -- twice against Clayton Kershaw and once against Greinke. He became only the second player to homer off both aces this season, joining the Angels' Kole Calhoun, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
"Luck," Murphy said.
Said captain David Wright: "I've never seen him this locked in. To go have those types of at-bats against those pitchers under these circumstances just shows you how well he's seeing the ball and how dangerous he can be."
Murphy went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs in Game 5. He hit .333 in the series. His teammates went a combined 4-for-29 with one run scored and one RBI on Thursday.
As for taking third base to allow for d'Arnaud's tying sacrifice fly, Murphy suggested it was more spontaneous -- not something spotted in a scouting report before the series.
"He saw all the infielders in the middle of the infield, so he said he didn't want to try to speed up. He just kept jogging," manager Terry Collins said. "As soon as he hit second, he took off for third and obviously made it. That tells you the player Dan Murphy is. He's alert. He's always trying to find an edge. Sometimes it doesn't work, but tonight it worked."
As he repeatedly was doused with Champagne in the clubhouse postgame, someone suggested to Murphy he was a magnet as the game's hero. Murphy replied there were plenty of heroes. And that was true. An on-the-ropes Jacob deGrom gutted through six innings, keeping the Dodgers hitless in their final 11 at-bats against him with runners in scoring position. Starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard logged an inning of scoreless relief. And Familia converted the first six-out save of his career.
"The hero?" Murphy said. "You can pick anybody in here. They're a hero. Everybody's a hero. Everybody had a piece of this."
Mets officials have telegraphed for a long time they do not have much inclination to re-sign Murphy this winter. So it is highly likely he will be in a different uniform in 2016. Murphy may command three or four years at $10 million-plus annually.
Assuming the Mets have sufficient offense elsewhere and do not need to add a middle-infield bat as a boost to the lineup, the Mets are prepared to have prospect Dilson Herrera succeed Murphy at second base as part of a middle-infield combination with Wilmer Flores and Ruben Tejada.
Asked if he started thinking at any point that it was his last time with the team, Murphy replied: "We'll worry about that later."
Yes, they will. For now, it's bring on the Chicago Cubs.