As we all know, Alex Bregman didn’t get off to a very good start with the Cubs after signing a five-year, $175 million deal last January. And that’s downplaying it — Bregman had a terrible first half and even used that word — “terrible” — to describe his own play.
Just before the All-Star break, Bregman flipped the proverbial switch and began hitting. Over his last 26 games, Bregman is batting .324/.397/.657 (35-for-108) with nine doubles, nine home runs, 26 RBI and 27 runs scored.
Three of those home
runs came Wednesday night in Washington, as Bregman drove in a career-high seven runs and the Cubs demolished the Nationals 12-6. It was the first three-homer game of Bregman’s career and the second three-homer game by a Cub this year (also Dansby Swanson July 1 against the Padres).
Before I get to the details of this win, a few three-homer game facts from BCB’s JohnW53:
Alex Bregman is the 28th different Cub since 1901 to hit three homers in a game.
Seven of them did it multiple times: Sammy Sosa, six; Ernie Banks, four; Dave Kingman and Aramis Ramirez, three; and Kris Bryant, Hank Sauer and Alfonso Soriano, two.
Dansby Swanson did it on July 1 at home vs. the Padres. The last time two Cubs did it in a season was 1998: Sosa twice and Brant Brown once. Moose Moryn and Lee Walls did it in 1958; Andy Pafko and Hank Sauer, in 1950.
And more:
Now let’s look at how this game unfolded.
Once again, the Cubs let the other team take the lead. They’ve been really good about coming from behind, though I would not recommend this in the postseason. The Nats scored a run off David Peterson in the second inning on a couple of singles, a fielder’s choice and a dribbler that Pedro Ramirez couldn’t make a play on.
The game remained 1-0 Nats until the fifth, as Washington’s Jackson Kent, making his MLB debut, held the Cubs scoreless despite issuing a bunch of walks. Kent, who grew up in the Chicago area and who had a large contingent of his family in attendance, grew up a Cubs fan.
And in the fifth, he gave his childhood favorite team the lead. (Not suggesting this was intentional, of course.)
Ramirez led off with a single and stole second. Ramirez seems “sneaky fast” to me; he doesn’t seem like the traditional “base stealer” type of guy, but he’s now got seven without being caught. Dansby Swanson then walked, and Pete Crow-Armstrong’s double scored Ramirez to tie the game [VIDEO].
Swanson stopped at third on the double. The Nats changed pitchers at that point, and Jake Bird got Seiya Suzuki to line out to short.
That’s when Bregman hit his first homer, a three-run shot into the Cubs bullpen [VIDEO].
Peterson gave back three of those runs in the bottom of the fifth, so the game is tied up heading to the sixth. Peterson had a bit of a rough outing, though one of the runs was unearned. He did strike out six [VIDEO].
The Cubs blew the game open with a five-run sixth. With one out, Ian Happ singled as a pinch-hitter and Ramirez reached on a fielding error. Fun fact about Happ’s hit:
Swanson doubled, scoring Happ to give the Cubs the lead back at 5-4 [VIDEO].
Ramirez stopped at third on the double. PCA was then called out on strikes for the second out of the inning, and then the Nats changed pitchers again. In this case the new pitcher was Yovanny Cruz, who the Cubs had just seen a couple of weeks ago at Wrigley Field when he was a Yankee — he was traded to the Nats at the deadline.
Suzuki greeted Cruz with a two-run single, making it 7-4 [VIDEO].
And that set up Bregman’s second homer of the game [VIDEO].
Javier Assad relieved Peterson and allowed a solo homer to Abimelec Ortiz in the bottom of the sixth, making it 9-5 Cubs. In the seventh, Assad got some help from his defense — this nice diving grab by Happ [VIDEO].
The Cubs extended their lead in the top of the eighth with the long ball. Swanson led off the inning with his 18th home run of the year [VIDEO].
One out later, Suzuki singled. That set up Bregman’s third homer of the game, off former Cub Trevor Williams [VIDEO].
Assad allowed a two-out solo homer in the bottom of the ninth that completed the scoring. Assad still was able to post a save, his second of the year, completing a four-inning, 66-pitch outing that saved the rest of the bullpen. Here’s the final out [VIDEO].
Here are Bregman’s postgame comments about his three-homer game [VIDEO].
One last note about Bregman: This game — by itself — increased Bregman’s bWAR by 0.5. His season bWAR is 3.6 — he’s got a real chance at a 5 bWAR season, which would be his first such year since 2019. (If you prefer fWAR, he’s at 3.1 after Wednesday.)
And here are Craig Counsell’s postgame remarks [VIDEO].
More good news: The Padres defeated the Brewers in extra innings Wednesday, sweeping the series from Milwaukee. That allowed the Cubs to move to within three games of the NL Central lead, and the Brewers begin a four-game series at Dodger Stadium this evening.
Meanwhile, the Cubs go for the series sweep over the Nationals in a Thursday afternoon contest. Kevin Gausman will start for the Cubs and Cade Cavalli goes for the Nats. Game time is 3:05 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network. The BCB game preview will post at 1 p.m. CT.
