Nats star Soto one ups Bregman in Game 6
Twenty-somethings Alex Bregman and Juan Soto offered their spin on Major League Baseball’s “Let the Kids Play” campaign during the Washington Nationals’ 7-2 win in Game 6 of the World Series: Let the kids carry.
Their bats to first base, that is, and even a few feet beyond in Bregman’s case.
In a curious twist on bat flips and the assortment of instant home-run braggadocio, the Astros’ Bregman carried his bat to first base following a solo home run in the first inning, shoving the Astros to a 2-1 lead.
A revved-up Bregman even toted the bat past first base coach Don Kelly, and wound up dropping it a few feet past first base. Bregman, in the middle of a home-run trot, turned back to Kelly as if to say he was sorry he didn’t simply hand it to his coach. Afterward, Bregman said he was sorry about the entire tote.
“I just let my emotions get the best of me,” he said. “It’s not how I was raised to play the game. I’m sorry for doing that.”
Bregman’s carry immediately made the rounds on social media, with Barstool Sports dubbing the 25-yearold, “LEGEND” — based on a bat carry often seen in T-Ball by those who simply don’t know better. The uniqueness of Bregman’s bat tote lasted all the way until the fifth inning, when Soto, who turned 21 during the World Series, launched a 413-foot homer into the second deck in right field.
Soto, in a more courteous move to his first base coach
Tim Bogar, dropped his bat just before rounding first. Like any big-league player who carried his bat to first base, Soto didn’t quite know what to do at that point and awkwardly reached out for a mid-five hand slap from Bogar, but the two failed to connect as a discombobulated Bogar also was reaching for the flipping bat at the same time.
Afterward Soto said he wasn’t trying to one-up Bregman, just that the bat carry looked “pretty cool” so he decided to give it a go.
Nationals manager Dave Martinez said of Bregman’s long lug, “We didn’t like it,” and Martinez added that he didn’t care for Soto mimicking Bregman, either. Astros manager A.J. Hinch said the same thing — so it’s safe to say there won’t be any bat carries to first base in Game 7.
Soto’s jaw-dropping smash lifted the Nationals to a 3-2 lead, and one they wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the way. He also became the youngest player to hit three home runs in the same World Series, according to MLB Stats.
As the guy-enticing @BroBible succinctly posted to Twitter not long after, “Juan Soto copying Alex Bregman’s home run celebration is the type of pettiness that makes sports great.”
Soto, the Nationals’ electric outfielder from the Dominican Republic, wound up with the ultimate carrying rights by late Tuesday, as Washington evened the World Series at three wins each.
The World Series finally wraps up Wednesday night in Minute Maid Park with a decisive Game 7, and with the Astros crossing their collective fingers the peculiar trend of the visitor prevailing in each contest finally comes to an end.
Astros fans got to know Soto all too well in Game 1 of the World Series, when he cranked a 417-foot homer in the fourth inning of the Nationals’ 5-4 win to get the Series rolling. That homer was to the opposite field and fell onto the train tracks, just below the Astros’ 2017 World Series sign.
He wasn’t finished in the opener, in smashing a tworun double off the left-field wall. In that game Soto became the youngest player in postseason history to have three RBIs and a stolen base in a game, according to MLB Stats.