The Nationals’ Adam Eaton was struggling against the Cardinals in Game 2 of the NLCS on Saturday, having gone 0-3 with a strikeout in his first three at-bats.
So in a big moment — two men on, with the Nationals clinging to a 1-0 lead in the eighth inning — Eaton decided to turn to “Seinfeld” for inspiration.
Specifically, he would turn to George Costanza, who once found success by doing the exact opposite of whatever his intuition told him to do. Only by doing so, did he find joy.
So Eaton figured he’d give the same approach a shot.
Here was Eaton’s thought process, via ESPN:
“Everything I was thinking, they did the opposite,” Eaton said. “So I was thinking 3-2 [count] should be a heater here and I’m like, well, that’s the opposite, so I should George Costanza it and just go ahead and said breaking ball, and that’s what happened.”
Eaton ripped a two-run double. They ended up being the winning runs, as the Nationals held on to a 3-1 lead to win the game and go up 2-0 in the series.
Genius. Absolutely genius.
Here’s the inning, which led to Eaton’s big hit:
Here’s Costanza.
