A rare sighting of an endangered species occured on the night of June 23rd – an “Oh Murph” moment. It was spotted in the third inning of the Cardinals-Mets game at Citi Field, in Flushing, New York when Daniel Murphy committed an error at first base.

“Incredible,” said local fan and Murphaholic Paul Rizoglou, who was in attendance. “These used to be spotted regularly, almost expected, when Murph was manning left field. I’m surprised I just saw one in person.”

With runners on 1st and 2nd and one out, Murphy cleanly picked a bouncer to his left before spinning and throwing towards second base to execute the first half of a double play, only to bounce the ball two feet in front of Alex Cora, sending the ball towards the outfield grass, an unearned run came home on the play.

As the game dragged on through the 6th inning, the Cardinals remained up 1-0 and Murphaholics everywhere began to wonder if this would be another “Oh, Murph” moment that would cost the game. Road games in Florida and St. Louis were two of the more conspicuous sightings from earlier this season.

As if the sighting was not special enough, the “Oh Murph” moment was made even more unusual in that it involved a play with his throw, and not with his buttered outfielders glove or spikes.  Scientific correlations, however, do indicate that an increase in Murphy’s batting average and pitchers-per-at-bat tend to indicate a rise in Oh Murph moments.