HOW DID ASTROS’ BREGMAN DO IN HR DERBY?
Schwarber edges Bregman in HR Derby; hometown hero Harper takes the crown
WASHINGTON — Alex Bregman’s scintillating stay in the Home Run Derby was brief.
The 5-10 Astros third baseman, dwarfed by the burly competition that surrounded him, bowed out after dropping a thrilling first-round matchup with No. 5 seed Kyle Schwarber 16-15 on Monday night at Nationals Park.
“I had a great time,” Bregman said. “I think that I gave it everything I had. I tried to win. Hit a few line drives that would have landed into the Crawford Boxes at Minute Maid.”
Hitting off Astros bullpen catcher Javier Bracamonte, Bregman called time out with two minutes and four seconds left in his round and seven home runs to his credit. He hit two of the next three pitches out to left field.
Bregman bunched together three consecutive homers as the clock ticked under a minute, sending his fellow Astros AllStars into a frenzy near the first-base line.
“It was really cool to see (the teammates) getting hyped over the last few swings,” Bregman said.
As time expired, Bregman — who maintained before the Derby he would concentrate on hitting low line drive shots to his pull side — sent one final pitch to center field. It knocked off the top of the wall, leaving him 3 feet short of a swing-off with Schwarber, who advanced to the final against Bryce Harper after defeating Rhys Hoskins in the second round.
Harper hit nine home runs in the last 47 seconds of the final round to tie Schwarber before receiving that extra bonus time. Sporting an Americanflag bandana and arm sleeve, Harper socked the walkoff winner on his sec-
ond pitch to defeat Schwarber, sending the 43,698 who gathered at Nationals Park into delirium.
Harper became the third player to win the Derby in his home park, joining the Cubs’ Ryne Sandberg (at Chicago’s Wrigley Field in 1989) and the Reds’ Todd Frazier (at Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark in 2015).
“It was fun, all the way to the end,” Bracamonte said. “It's really hard to win the Home Run Derby, as you just saw. It was an honor for me to pitch to (Bregman).”
Against Bregman, Schwarber hit two homers of 440 feet or longer and was rewarded with 30 seconds of bonus time. Schwarber hit his 15th and 16th homers during those precious seconds Bregman did not have.
Bregman was the American League’s lone representative in the eight-man field, joined by Harper, Schwarber, Hoskins, Max Muncy, Javier Baez, Freddie Freeman and Jesus Aguilar.
“I had to be convinced they actually wanted me to hit,” Bregman said beforehand. “And once I figured out they were serious, I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s go.’ ”
He executed an unconventional but prudent strategy to perfection. Bregman kept the baseball low for less flight time in order to see more pitches. He saw 16 pitches in less than two minutes before taking his only timeout
“I’m going to try to hit it 338 feet down the left-field line,” he said before the Derby. “Do it as many times as I can.”
Bregman focused on his pull side in left field, mimicking his daily pregame batting practice, during which he acknowledges all he tries to do is hit home runs. He hit three of the first five pitches he saw into the left-field seats.
“He practices getting the ball up in the air pull side every day,” Astros hitting coach Dave Hudgens said. “He’s just so short to the baseball. He’s got quick hands, works at it every day, studies it. Number one, he wants to be the best player, so that drives him.”
Bregman was only the fifth Astro to compete in the Home Run Derby and the first since Lance Berkman in 2008. No Astro has won the event.
It was Bregman’s second foray into a professional home run derby. He participated in one with Class AA Corpus Christi in 2016 and did not hit a single homer.
The next day, in the league’s All-Star Game, he hit one.