WASHINGTON – Alex Bregman is more locked in than any hitter in the major leagues. The Chicago Cubs are as close to the Milwaukee Brewers as they’ve been in nearly three months.
And with three balls rocketing off Bregman’s bat Wednesday, Aug. 12, he and the Cubs served notice that their alliance is starting to turn lethal.
The two-time World Series champion and MVP runner-up crossed another item off his career to-do list, posting his first three-homer game as the Cubs withstood a stiff challenge from the Washington Nationals but burst the dam in the middle innings for a 12-6 victory.
The Cubs signed Bregman to a five-year, $140 million contract not only for his production but also his reputation as a human victory cigar, his mere presence uplifting teammates in a manner rare among ballplayers.
Yet after an epic run with the Houston Astros and a culture-shifting year spent in Boston, Bregman and the Cubs have proved a symbiotic relationship, grinders helping grinders.
This week, that came in the form of Bregman and major league development assistant Ben Martin poring over more than a decade of videos at 1 in the morning after the club arrived in Washington.
The video dated as far back as Bregman’s 2016 stint at Class AA Corpus Christi in the Astros’ system, and the duo used KinaTrax motion-capture data to chart changes in his swing.
The homework paid off: Bregman had two hits and a homer in the Cubs’ series-opening win Tuesday.
A night later came the booms.
His three-run homer off reliever Jake Bird in the fifth inning lifted Chicago to a 4-1 lead and after the Nationals tied it in the bottom half, his two-run blast off Yovanny Cruz an inning later pushed Chicago’s lead to 9-4, ensuring a lower-leverage game for the Cubs’ bullpen.
For good measure, he piled on with a two-run shot in the eighth off veteran right-hander Trevor Williams, capping a perfect night: 3-for-3, three homers, two walks and an undeniable status that he’s been the game’s hottest hitter for three weeks running.
Since July 27, Bregman leads all major league hitters with 26 hits in 16 games. He’s slashing .394/.460/.788 in that span, with six home runs.
For reference: It took him 69 games spanning 10 weeks to hit his first six home runs of the season. Not that the Cubs really doubted the three-time All-Star and 2019 AL MVP runner-up.
Nor did Bregman.
“No. I knew,” Bregman said about tamping down any worries and retaining his confidence that, eventually, he’d break out. “But just gotta keep going. Gotta figure out what’s going on and address it. I feel like the last month or so has been a step in the right direction.
“But really, the last two days have been a real step in the right direction.”
Backing up his home run Tuesday with three more towering fly balls into the left field seats – almost identical, really – was crucial. Bregman knows himself enough to avoid the pitfall of the false positive – a moment where he believes he’s figured out a flaw in his swing, only for him to feel uncomfortable in the box the next day.
“Honestly, that’s the most important thing, right?” he says. “I’ve had days this year where it’s gone all right, had a few extra-base hits and the next day, you wake up and get to the ballpark and it feels completely different because maybe that cue wasn’t the one that was actually correct.
“We went through the archives for this, from way back in the day, to look at all the changes of how I’ve kind of loaded throughout my career. We were watching Double-A Corpus Christi video two nights ago in my room, 1 o’clock, Ben and I.”
That stint at Corpus Christi came barely a year after the Astros used the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 draft on Bregman, then an LSU shortstop. The No. 1 pick was Dansby Swanson, the Vanderbilt shortstop picked by Arizona.
Bregman wore No. 2 in Houston as a reminder he wasn’t yet No. 1. Now, he and Swanson are mutual appreciators in Chicago, both owning three-homer games this season.
“He’s obviously a guy I respect the knowledge of the game he has,” Bregman says of Swanson. “We bounce things across each other over the course of a season. We’re both looking to do one thing and win.
“That’s what wakes us up in the morning every day, is winning baseball games.”
Says Swanson, who hit his 18th homer Wednesday: “The track record speaks for itself. For him, it’s about being convicted in something that he’s doing. I feel like he’s finally found that. I’ve seen it his whole career.
“He’s a special player when he’s going right.”
Bregman’s season totals still look mildly un-Bregmanlike – a .256 average, 16 homers, a .759 OPS that’s a good tick off the .846 mark he brought into this season.
Yet the Cubs are now 71-50, nicely invigorated by trade deadline additions, and as close to Milwaukee since they were 2½ games out on May 24.
You forget, Cubs manager Craig Counsell says, that it’s a 162-game season.
“A 162-game season,” he says, for emphasis.
The great ones know that well. And Bregman now has the production to match the passion he’s spread around an already locked-in clubhouse.
“Part of that personality really fit in seamlessly,” says Swanson. “One thing he’s brought is help guys navigate through things, whether it’s other guys and their at-bats, pitchers and their approach.
“He’s at his best when he has his hands in everything.”
Never moreso than Wednesday night.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The Cubs never doubted Alex Bregman and neither did he. His three-homer game shows why.
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