Tom Murphy went and had himself another monster game Tuesday night for the Albuquerque Isotopes.
The rehabbing Colorado Rockies catcher went 3-for-5 with five RBI in a 10-9 loss to the visiting Fresno Grizzlies.
Despite that line, there were still things that Murphy said he needs to work on before his next game behind the plate.
“I’m getting there, there’s some stuff that I’m coming up against, kind of getting myself in bad counts but coming through in the end,” Murphy said. “Early in the count I can’t make too many mistakes.”
Falling behind in the count can be mitigated by still getting the right result, as Murphy did in three of his five plate appearances. He smacked a two-run single to left in the third inning, an RBI single to left in the fourth and then a two-run triple to right-center in the seventh.
Still, Murphy said there are little things he needs to improve upon.
“The rest of your career is pretty much the refinement of the little things,” he said. “After two-and-a-half months off, there’s just a lot of little things.”
Defense also remains an area of focus for Murphy. He threw out one of the three runners who attempted to steal second against him Tuesday.
“I feel pretty good (but) today I should have been a lot better than I was,” Murphy said. “I’ve just gotta be more on time in my set-up and that sort of thing, be more comfortable.”
Overall it was a tough night for many of the Isotopes (31-33), who have now lost four of five this season to the Grizzlies (32-33).
Starter Thad Weber was charged with five runs on eight hits and two walks in five innings. Shane Carle then allowed three runs in two-thirds of an inning. Carlos Estevez (0-2) gave up the final two runs in the eighth on Tyler White’s double into the left field corner.
“It was a little bit of both, I thought they did a good job of making adjustments to our game plan,” Murphy said. “Towards the end of the game we started to clean things up a little bit (but) then we started walking guys, putting guys on base, that sort of thing. When we executed pitches we did pretty well.”
Manager Glenallen Hill was serving the first of a two-game suspension Tuesday night. He was ejected from Albuquerque’s last home game on June 8.
The Isotopes will try to bounce back Wednesday night at 7:05. Lefty Ryan Carpenter (2-5, 5.65 ERA) will start against Grizzlies right-hander David Martinez (3-6, 4.95).