Bregman’s return turns heroic
As soon as Tony Kemp took ball four, Jason Castro retreated from the ondeck circle and back to the Astros’ dugout. Out stepped Alex Bregman, 13 days removed from his last appearance, wielding a bat in his hands. Well ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation from a hamstring strain that was expected to end his season, Bregman made a surprise return in the Astros’ 8-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night. The Minute Maid Park crowd cheered as the standout rookie moved toward the batter’s box two hours after first pitch, and again moments later when he had a game-altering hit.
Bregman connected with the fourth pitch he saw from Felix Hernandez and lifted it into left-center field to plate Yulieski Gurriel and tie the score 4-4. The Astros piled on four more runs in a gamebreaking, six-run sixth inning, a frame broken
open via a two-run double by George Springer.
“That might have been more nerve-wracking than my first at-bat here,” Bregman said. “It felt weird. But it felt good at the end.”
With the victory, the Astros ensured they will remain mathematically alive in the American League wild-card race until at least Thursday. Their 83-75 record leaves them 2½ games behind the Baltimore Orioles for the second wild card with four games to play. The Detroit Tigers and the Mariners, whom the Astros play once more Wednesday afternoon, remain ahead of them.
“Obviously, we’re not dead yet,” said Springer, who has 12 hits in his last 18 at-bats. “This team isn’t going to quit. We’re going to go down fighting. This was a big game for us, but now we have to move on to (Wednesday) and buy ourselves another day.”
Florida trip a no-go
Barring collapses by three teams, a matter of days are all the Astros have left. But despite their likely failure to make a second consecutive postseason, Bregman’s pivotal hit offered another reminder of the potential they will return to their lineup in 2017. They will be privy to a full season of Bregman and Gurriel on top of returning stars Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and Springer.
Bregman’s triumphant return to the field Tuesday came on the heels of his first two afternoons of a normal pregame routine since the Sept. 14 injury. Before Monday’s game, Astros manager A.J. Hinch had cracked the door open for the 22-yearold third baseman to play at some point over the final six games.
It was not expected to be the next day.
The Astros had even booked a flight for Bregman to Florida, where he would get instructional league at-bats at the team’s spring training facility in Kissimmee, Fla.
“I don’t think he’ll make that one,” Hinch quipped after the game.
Hinch thought at the start of Tuesday there was a chance Bregman might be available that night. The Astros would use him, however, only in a game-changing situation. In the fourth inning, after Bregman got loose, he notified his manager he felt ready to hit. Two innings later, his name was called.
Facing Hernandez, a longtime superstar he had watched dating to middle school, Bregman fell behind 0-2. He watched a sinker low and away for ball one before offering at the curveball, over the plate but low.
“I knew it would send a little bit of a boost to our team to send up a guy like him,” Hinch said. “He came through with a big at-bat.”
Springer comes through
Hinch pinch-ran for Bregman with backup catcher Max Stassi. Jake Marisnick then dived headfirst into first base to reach on an error by first baseman Adam Lind before Springer roped a ball to right field that bounced over the wall for a ground-rule double. A single by Marwin Gonzalez scored two more runs.
The Astros sent 10 batters to the plate during the inning, capitalizing on two Mariners errors. Hernandez, more than solid through five, failed to survive the sixth. Four of the eight runs charged to him were unearned.
Bregman’s RBI was his 33rd in 48 major league games. With the Astros all but eliminated, it remains unclear how much he will play in their final four games.
He will not, however, head to Florida.
“This was a little better at-bat tonight than an instructional league at-bat on field four,” Hinch said.