Rookie a big hit
Bregman brings power to lineup needing a boost
Alex Bregman hit his eighth home run of the year in a 2-1 win over the Cubs.
Casual observers would be hard-pressed to believe Alex Bregman is less than 15 months removed from playing his final collegiate game.
In a stretch of the calendar that will define this Astros season, the smooth swinger has been the team’s best hitter.
Bregman, 22, smacked his eighth home run in his last 24 games Saturday to spark a result the Astros needed, a 2-1 win over the major league-leading Cubs at Minute Maid Park. Despite his welldocumented 1-for-34 start as a big leaguer, last year’s No. 2 overall draft pick has elevated his batting average to .272.
Since he recorded his first extra-base hit, a double Aug. 6 in his 11th game as a major leaguer, Bregman is batting a team-best .331 with a .620 slugging percentage. The former LSU star’s 33-game span includes not only each of his eight homers but also 11 doubles and three triples.
“He’s been remarkable and really at an early stage in his career during the most important games,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “We’ve been playing these playoff caliber-type games for a few weeks now and he’s not showing any signs of this being his first time.”
Dueling fans
Saturday’s matinee exhibited postseason vibes all around. Fans of both teams packed the seats in the ballpark’s third sellout of the season. Chants of “Let’s Go Astros” were countered with those of “Let’s Go Cubbies.”
“Everybody’s battling for something out there,” closer Ken Giles said.
Especially the Astros (75-67), who with 20 games to play have the Orioles, Tigers and Yankees ahead of them in the race for the second wild card.
Their triumph Saturday snapped a three-game losing streak and afforded them an opportunity to claim a series win against the best team in baseball.
To do so they will need to beat reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta.
Jose Altuve, who exited Saturday’s game in the eighth inning because of a stomach illness, told his manager he expected to be able to play Sunday. The star second baseman was “sick to his stomach the whole day” Saturday, Hinch said.
“Knowing him, we’re going to convince ourselves it’s a 24-hour stomach illness,” Hinch said. “He’s already come into my office and said, ‘I’ll be fine for tomorrow.’ It doesn’t surprise me.”
The Astros will need as many of their big bats as possible. They held on Saturday behind a two-run third inning, a five-inning start from Collin McHugh and four no-hit innings from their bullpen.
Bregman’s homer opened the scoring. Looking for a fastball away from veteran righthander John Lackey, the Astros’ two-hole hitter took strike one in that spot. After misfiring for ball one, Lackey threw another heater on the outer half, this one low in the strike zone. Bregman took it the other way.
“It was a first-row homer in a bandbox,” Lackey said. “It was a decent pitch (but) good hitting by that kid. You have to give him credit.”
Silencing the Cubs
Altuve followed with a bunt single and scored what proved to be the game-winner on a Marwin Gonzalez safety squeeze. The Astros recorded two hits outside of the third inning but held the Cubs to that total for the game.
The lone run McHugh allowed came on a Willson Contreras sacrifice fly in the fourth inning. A pitch count of 92 and as fresh a bullpen as the Astros have had in days prevented McHugh from seeing the sixth.
“Any time you can hold a team like that at bay for a while, you feel good about it,” McHugh said. “I felt like I had probably a little bit more left in the tank there at the end, but with a tight game like that and a first-place team and the guys we’ve got in the back side of the pen, me and (Hinch) were talking about it and he was like, ‘Hey, we’re going to do this. We’re going to treat this like a playoff game. We’re going to go get a win here.’ And that’s exactly what happened.”
Luke Gregerson and Ken Giles each made clutch pitches when needed. After issuing a one-out walk to Tommy La Stella in the eighth, Gregerson punched out Cubs leadoff man Dexter Fowler and National League MVP front-runner Kris Bryant in back-to-back at-bats.
Giles ends it
Giles worked around a leadoff baserunner on second base after a four-pitch walk to Anthony Rizzo and a wild pitch. He ended the game by striking out Contreras on a 99.3 mph fastball, the fastest of the 14 pitches he threw.
“Not every outing’s going to be easy in September,” Giles said. “All it is is just bearing down and getting one out at a time.”
Four innings after his homer, Bregman added a single to secure his sixth multi-hit performance in nine games this month.
He has a 24-game onbase streak.
“I feel back to how I was feeling in the minor leagues, squaring it up and putting it on the barrel,” Bregman said.