Then, in Game 3, he suffered the indignity of seeing the batter in front of him walked to load the bases, a tactical insult to a cleanup hitter. The message from the other team is obvious for all to see: We would rather face you than the other guy. It made sense, though. Michael Brantley, a left-handed batter who was 8 for 17 in the Series entering Sunday, was more likely to get a hit off the right-handed Rodney than Bregman
There may be sound tactical reasons behind it all, but it can still sting. Carlos Correa, the Astros shortstop, said Bregman was indeed angry about it.
“I could see it coming,” Correa said of the grand slam. “That walk to Michael, so that they could pitch to him? That set him on fire. When you do that to A-Breg he’s going to come back the next day and he’s going to be A-Breg.
“He’s born for this. He’s born for the big moments. You can contain him for a couple games, but not for the whole series. The man is unbelievable. He’s one of the best hitters in the game, and you guys saw that tonight.”
Bregman said his approach heading into the bases-loaded at-bat against Rodney in Game 3 (when he grounded out) was different than it was in Game 4 because there were two outs in the first case and only one in the second. In Game 4, he just needed to get the ball in the air to score a run on a sacrifice.
And when he launched the ball on a trajectory into the left-field seats, he stood with the bat raised up in his left hand and walked five steps down the first-base line, a showcase pose for a showcase moment.
“It was slow and swaggy,” Reddick said. “Typical A.B.; I wouldn’t expect anything else from him.”
Bregman, at his best, does play with some swagger, but it had been in very short supply this postseason. He homered in Game 2, stared briefly into his own dugout and then raised both arms as he approached home plate. But later in the game, he made two defensive mistakes and went 0 for 3 after the home run. And he was 0 for 5 in Game 3, stranding six runners in that one.