Daniel Vogelbach’s mental break seems to have paid off.
The 30-year-old returned to the Mets’ lineup and hit a home run Friday night during a 6-1 series-opening win over the Cardinals. Playing for the first time since June 7, Vogelbach batted seventh as the designated hitter.
After he popped out and grounded out in his first two at-bats of the game, Vogelbach turned on a sinker from Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas and launched a towering solo home run into the right-field upper-deck in the sixth inning. It was Vogelbach’s third homer of the year, and 15th run batted in. The blast extended the Mets’ lead to 6-1.
“I didn’t produce the way that I could’ve produced,” Vogelbach, who finished 1-for-3, said after the game about his struggles. “At the end of the day, the name of the game is winning. If I’m not gonna do my part to help the team win, then somebody else can. That’s why you put in the work, and do what you can to help this team win.
“For me, it’s to have good at-bats, hit the ball hard, and drive the baseball in.”
Vogelbach, who entered the night with a woeful .203/.343/.297 slash line, just two home runs and 14 RBIs, had confirmed on Wednesday a report by The Post that manager Buck Showalter had given him a mental break of sorts.
The Mets had essentially been playing a man short for more than a week, with Vogelbach considered unavailable off the bench.
“Nobody likes to see one of your teammates or your players going through a tough time, in a lot of ways,” Showalter said. “Daniel, he cares a lot. So do his teammates about him. I see all the work he does to get back there. … Can you imagine having that type of ability and power at your fingertips and not being able to get to it?”
Vogelbach said the break was more to work on his swing than a mental reset, and that it’s difficult to make adjustments while in the lineup every day.
He credited hitting coach Jeremy Barnes and assistant hitting coach Eric Hinske for coming in on days off to work with him.
While the home run was a positive sign, both Vogelbach and Showalter cautioned against the notion that the Mets’ burly lefty is completely fixed.
“We won two games in a row, that’s the ultimate thing,” Vogelbach said. “This isn’t about me, or this isn’t about a break that I took or about me hitting a home run tonight, this is about us playing two good games in a row.”
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