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New York Mets: Eric Campbell bounces back from horrible hitting slump

By Nick Ziegler

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The New York Mets have been hit hard by injuries this season, and that has forced normal bench players into the everyday lineup.

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One of those players forced into more playing time has been Eric Campbell. The injury to David Wright led to Campbell becoming the Mets’ starting third baseman. Things would start out well for Campbell, but a dreadful drought led to him losing his spot.

Campbell went on a 0-for-28 hitless streak, which was closing in on the franchise mark for futility held by Rey Ordonez, who was 0-for-37.

Mets’ second baseman Daniel Murphy suffered a strained quad, which once again led to Campbell getting a chance.

In the series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Campbell finally broke out of his horrible funk. On June 5th, Campbell would snap the hitless streak with a RBI single, which was his first hit since May 18th.

In a 2-1 loss on Saturday night, Campbell would have his first multi-hit game since May 17th, as it looked like Campbell was breaking out of his slump.

On Sunday afternoon in an important series finale, Campbell would have a big impact on the game. In the first inning, Campbell had a costly throwing error, but he would help Jacob deGrom at the plate after letting him down in the field.

In the series finale against the Diamondbacks, Campbell went 2-for-4 at the plate with a two-run homerun, and single, and two stolen bases.

Said Campbell to Adam Rubin of ESPN.com: “The home run doesn’t take [the error] away. I’ve always been more pissed when I make an error defensively than when I strike out or anything like that because you’re making the pitch count rise, you’re hurting the starting pitcher. Offensively you just try to do everything you can to make up for it, I guess.”

It was a long frustrating stretch for Campbell, but in the last three games he is 5-for-12, as he is probably one Met that didn’t want an off day.

“A lot of thoughts go through your head,” Campbell said about the hitless streak to Rubin. “You just try to remind yourself it’s never as bad as it seems — tomorrow is always a new day no matter how much you struggle. When you play 162 games, you just hope to get more chances. Thankfully they’ve stuck with me and have given me a lot of confidence to play, which is nice.”

Manager Terry Collins didn’t have many other options after the injury to Murphy other than to insert Campbell back into the lineup. The homerun for Campbell was clearly huge, as it was just his seventh extra base-hit of the season.

“I thought it was huge for him,” manager Terry Collins said to Rubin. “He’s gone through such a rough stretch at the plate. With David [Wright] being out, this is really a great opportunity for Eric to show everybody he belongs here. And he had such a tough time. And then he made the error. I thought that [homer] was really huge for him.”

The Mets will be back home on Tuesday hosting the San Francisco Giants, as Campbell will look to continue his improved hitting at home.

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