Nationals' Adam Eaton credits 'Seinfeld' for clutch hit in Game 2 of NLCS

'If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right'

By Pete Blackburn

Oct 13, 2019 at 8:07 pm ET • 1 min read

George Costanza seems like an odd source of inspiration for a pro baseball player in October but, on Saturday night, Washington Nationals outfielder Adam Eaton credited the "Seinfeld" character for one of the biggest hits of Eaton's career.

Heading into the eighth inning of NLCS Game 2, the Nationals were clinging on to a 1-0 lead in St. Louis. Eaton came to the plate in the top of the eighth with runners on first and second base, meaning he had a pretty great opportunity to give his team some insurance against the Cardinals.

But Eaton was having a tough day to that point, going 0 for 3 with a strikeout. It was just one of those days where nothing really seemed to be working for him, so he decided to get creative and channel his inner Costanza to help him snap out of a funk.

"Everything I was thinking, they did the opposite," Eaton said, via ESPN. "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 got that breaking ball and smacked a two-run double, giving his team some much-needed breathing room with a 3-0 lead. The Nats would go on to win 3-1 to take a 2-0 series lead.

As "lord of the idiots," Costanza isn't exactly an ideal guy to emulate in life, but Eaton was clearly able to benefit from the piece of sage advice that Jerry Seinfeld gave to his lovable loser of a best friend: "If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right."