Escape from New York: Murphy, Turner now slugging stars

In parts of three seasons together as Mets teammates between 2011-13, Daniel Murphy and Justin Turner shared the starting lineup together 112 times in eight positional combinations. More than once, they battled for playing time at the same position while attempting to prove themselves as starters. Usually, they were viewed as supporting players around higher-profile infielders David Wright, Jose Reyes and (at times) Ike Davis and Lucas Duda.

Now, to the chagrin of Mets fans left to wonder what might have been, Murphy and Turner are reunited once again — this time on opposite sides of the field as star-level linchpins of their respective lineups as the Nationals and Dodgers face off in the National League Division Series (Friday, 5:30 p.m. ET, FS1). Murphy has become a stunning Washington power source at second base; Turner is now well into his third strong season manning the hot corner for the Dodgers.

“I played against him in the [Arizona] Fall League,” said Turner, referring to the autumn of 2008 when he was coming up through the Baltimore system. “I knew he was a good player… and I knew he could really hit.”

By then, Murphy had made a strong debut in 49 games for the 2008 Mets, hitting a very good .313/.397/.473, but he was struggling with an ultimately unsuccessful experiment attempting to learn the outfield. He’d take a step back in 2009, hitting .266/.313/.427 while playing first base and left field, then miss all of ’10 with a pair of right knee injuries. Turner, meanwhile, got into 17 games for the 2009-10 Orioles and arrived in New York via waiver claim in May 2010, as Murphy was rehabbing. He’d spend most of the year in the Minors and didn’t join the Mets for good until April 19, 2011, when he was recalled largely to serve as a platoon partner for Murphy.

The first time Murphy and Turner shared a lineup together was on May 12, 2011, though it wasn’t until the next day in Houston that the quartet of Murphy, Turner, Reyes and Wright would first join up, with Murphy and Turner hitting sixth and seventh. That particular foursome would start together 14 times that year, before Reyes departed for Miami.

“Justin was always a student of the game,” Murphy says now. “I always really enjoyed talking baseball with him,” which squares pretty well with what Turner said about Murphy: “We just loved him. You understood how much he loved the game of baseball and how much he loved to talk about hitting.”

That’s a dynamic that hasn’t changed even though the two now operate on opposite …

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