There’s an old saying: even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.
In Wednesday’s case, it found some cans of soup.
On Wednesday afternoon, Eric Campbell arrived at the ballpark only to learn he would be playing left field as an injury replacement to Michael Cuddyer, who aggravating his left knee on Monday against the Giants and was unable to play for a second straight day.
Campbell, who was mired in a 2-for-32 slumber over his last 15 games, literally doubled his output with two hits late – one in the seventh inning and one in the ninth inning.
In the eighth inning, Campbell got the club’s mini-rally going with a single to right field. He would come around to score the team’s second run after Terry Collins put on a hit and run to get Campbell to third when Jacob deGrom singled through the vacated hole.
And in the ninth inning, Campbell capped a successful road trip for the Mets with a two-run home run, the first home run for the team since June 27 and the first home run hit by anyone not named Curtis Granderson since June 18.
“[Campbell] did go through a stretch where he was hitting the ball hard and not getting rewarded. For him to hit that home run was nice. We really root for him,” Jacob deGrom said after his masterful performance on Wednesday.
He’s certainly hard not to root for. He’s a guy who certainly played his way onto the roster out of camp, but was demoted to make room for the club to carry an extra reliever. He tore it up in Las Vegas and pushed his way back onto the roster when David Wright injured his hamstring just a week into the season. He started off red hot, but like most players of his caliber do, came crashing back down to earth in a hurry and has been mostly lost for the better part of three months.
“It feels good to help the team win, that’s all I could think about,’’ Campbell said smiling after the win. “It’s going to be good to go into the clubhouse and feel that I contributed a little bit.’’
Campbell, who was mostly an everyday player in the minor leagues, has had trouble adapting to life as a bench player in the big leagues. But he says he’s starting to finally get it, even though the results have been mostly absent this season.
“I have finally learned to take it day-by-day,’’ Campbell explained. “I have been told that my whole career and that’s easy to do when you are playing every day, but I’ve really learned a lot about myself. It’s tough at times.’’
There’s no arguing against Campbell’s work ethic. This guy is always hitting in the cage with Kevin Long, he’s always taking extra batting practice on the field, watching video, finding anyway he can crack the cage his bat has been in this season. He has a nice, short swing and quick hands – he had just found absolutely no answer.
At least until Wednesday.
It was really nice to seem him finally break through, and contribute in a big way towards winning not only the game, but a road trip which appeared very daunting seven days ago, especially with the Mets being swept by the Cubs in the three games preceding the trip.
Sure, it’s just one game. But this was big for Campbell and the Mets. His production might have been the difference between a 3-3 road trip and a 4-2 road trip.
Right now, there’s no single position player who has the ability to carry the offense. It’s going to take the eight starters and the entire bench to support the pitching staff, with a little creativity from the manager to manufacture runs.
And on Wednesday, Campbell started and ended two rallies for the club. For one day anyway, the work paid off.
Just Mets 