Koda Glover and Blake Treinen to toss three scoreless innings of one-hit ball. “He might do better than he did last year, which is hard to believe.”

Last year, fresh off a 2015 postseason where he set a major league record by homering in six consecutive games with the New York Mets, Murphy hit .347 (second in the National League). In his inaugural season in the District, he led the league in doubles, slugging and OPS, and finished second in the NL MVP voting behind Chicago’s Kris Bryant. This year, he has picked up right where he left off. And then some.

Granted, it’s early, but after Murphy served Philly closer Jeanmar Gomez's 1-1 slider into the left-field corner, his average was sitting at .444, best in the National League.His 20 hits and six doubles were also tops in the league, and had him on pace for an absurd 324 hits and 97 doubles, both of which would shatter existing records. Obviously, that won’t happen. What is happening is that Murphy’s performing as if this spring training was just any old spring training. But that was hardly the case.

Daniel Murphy has seven multi-hit games during his ongoing 10-game hit streak; on Friday, his second hit -- a 10th-inning double -- drove in the winner for the Nationals. Win McNamee/Getty Images

Because he played for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, Murphy got only 30 at-bats in Grapefruit League action, or about half as many as teammates such as Harper and Adam Eaton got. In the WBC, where