With success coming again, Garrett Cooper hopes to put ‘pretty crappy’ slump behind him

Could Garrett Cooper finally be breaking out of his slump nearly two months in the making?

The Miami Marlins’ first baseman/designated hitter sure hopes so after the way he felt at the plate on the road against the Philadelphia Phillies and in Friday’s 6-3, series-opening win against the New York Mets at loanDepot park.

In the three-game series, Cooper went 5 for 12 with two doubles and no strikeouts.

And then on Friday against the Mets, Cooper reached base in all four of his plate appearances and was a triple shy of the cycle.

Prior to the Phillies series, Cooper had been hitting just .092 (10 for 109) over his past 35 games (30 starts). His batting average dipped 71 points from a season-high .321 to .251 and his OPS fell 138 points from .855 to .717 — both his lowest on the season since May 20.

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“I’m not afraid to say that it’s been pretty crappy,” Cooper said of his offensive performance as of late. “I think the indecisiveness the last few weeks when you go into a struggle tends to spiral as a hitter. ... These last few days, I’ve just kind of said ‘Screw it.’ I’m just thinking that I’m gonna go out there and attack.”

Cooper said he began putting more pressure on himself after he was named an All-Star for the first time in mid-July. He felt he had to “live up to the billing,” that he had to “be as good as those guys are.”

“It kind of just went sideways on me,” Cooper said. “You’ve just got to remind yourself to play baseball. You can’t think about whatever happens. It’s just something you say to move on.”

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Cooper said he started to feel the situation flip during the series opener against the Phillies on Tuesday when he faced Aaron Nola. He only had one hit in that game, a fourth-inning single, but he also had two hard-hit balls that died at the warning track.

A first step. Progress.

He followed up with back-to-back multi-hit games on Wednesday and Thursday to cap the series, with his performance on Thursday playing a role in Miami’s 6-5 win that snapped a nine-game losing streak.

Cooper had two doubles in that game. The first came as part of a three-run third inning that gave the Marlins an early lead. The second led off the ninth inning and sparked Miami’s game-winning rally.

It carried over on Friday. Cooper opened scoring with a two-run home run in the first inning, his first home run since July 9, before adding a third-inning single and fifth-inning double. He also drew a walk in the seventh.

“The season’s a long grind,” Cooper said. “It can spiral on you. It spiraled on me for about six weeks where I felt like I had to do maybe too much for the team, maybe putting way too much pressure on my shoulders as a hitter and it just spiraled out of control. I’m just trying to find my footing again, attacking early and attacking often.”