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Tim Tebow puts slump behind him with opposite field home run

Tim Tebow
Tim Tebow hit an impressive opposite field home run Sunday. (AP Photo)

Sundays aren’t a day of rest for New York Mets minor league outfielder Tim Tebow. The 29-year-old former quarterback had been struggling at the plate recently, but broke out of his slump in the best way possible.

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In the fifth inning of Sunday’s game against the West Virginia Power, Tebow belted an opposite field blast for his third home run of the season.

Coming into the contest, Tebow had been struggling at the plate for the Columbia Fireflies. He went into Saturday’s game riding an 0-for-17 streak at the plate. After popping out in his first at-bat, Tebow doubled to in the fourth inning of Saturday’s game to end the skid.

That success carried over into Sunday’s game. On top of the opposite field blast, Tebow also added an RBI double in the ninth inning. He finished 2-for-4, with a run scored and two RBI in the team’s 6-3 loss.

Through 35 games in Single-A, Tebow has mostly looked overmatched. Following Sunday’s two-hit outburst, the outfielder is hitting just .230, with a .688 OPS. While those aren’t numbers you would typically celebrate, they are somewhat impressive considering Tebow hasn’t played organized baseball in nearly a decade.

Prior to his slump, Tebow was actually on a bit of a hot streak. Over a span of 16 games, he was hitting .327/.413/.436. That was good enough to make the Mets at least think about promoting him to the next level of the minors at some point this summer.

While that’s encouraging, it’s clear Tebow still has work to do. His high strikeout rate remains an issue. With 37 whiffs in 138 plate appearances, Tebow has struck out 26.8 percent of the time in Single-A. Those numbers don’t tend to improve as players move up the ladder and face better pitchers. On top of that, he still seems to have some issues with his throwing accuracy.

Breaking out of this slump was a nice step in the right direction. Then again, maybe it should have been expected. Tebow is used to performing in front of large congregations on Sunday.

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik