Cubs' Alex Bregman feeling more comfortable at plate, and it's showing
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Alex Bregman finally might have unlocked something in his swing.
Like last month when https://chicago.suntimes.com/cubs" >Cubs teammate Dansby Swanson broke “the dam” that had been keeping his hitting at bay, Bregman appears to have found “the feels” at the plate.
After hitting two home runs in June, Bregman was homerless this month until he went deep July 11-12 in Cincinnati.
The second of the two homers was accompanied by a single and a double, and Bregman drove in four runs.
Unfortunately for him, the All-Star break cost him those “feels,” and he went 0-for-7 in the first two games back, Friday and Saturday against the Twins.
For reasons that defy explanation, the “feels” returned Sunday, when the third baseman hit a two-run homer in the first inning, giving him three homers in five games.
“The first two days just felt a little off,” Bregman said after the Cubs’ 10-1 victory Sunday. “What we were working on right before the break felt better today.
We kind of figured out what was going wrong.
So felt good.
The swing felt just like it did in Cincinnati, which was nice.
“Feels better.
Feels much simpler.”
Feels.
What does that mean?
“Players are just trying to find feels that work for them,” manager Craig Counsell said. “That’s what Alex is referring to.
The beauty of hitting and the madness of hitting is that it’s a constant life search for it, and it feels like, once I find it, why does it ever go away?
“That’s why hitting’s hard.
And that’s why you work and you practice and keep trying to find it.
The feel is here today, and you might have to find a new one tomorrow.
That’s how hitting works.”
Sometimes, those feels are all a hitter needs to get back in the groove.
If not for quadriceps injuries in 2021 with the Astros and ’25 with the Red Sox, Bregman probably would’ve entered this season coming off five straight with 20 home runs.
He didn’t forget how to hit dingers, but that feeling of hitting them became elusive.
His homer Sunday finally put him in double digits.
The Cubs stuck with the 32-year-old Bregman during his drought, because that’s what you do when you give someone a five-year, $175 million contract.
And hitting was all he had to worry about Monday in the opener of a three-game series against the Tigers at Wrigley Field.
Bregman was the designated hitter for only the sixth time this season.
Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer told the Sun-Times that the team wanted to get Bregman off his feet while keeping his hot bat in the lineup.
In his place at third, the Cubs gave another start to rookie Pedro Ramirez, who has his own hot bat.
While going 2-for-4 as the DH on Sunday, Ramirez scalded three pitches at exit velocities over 100 mph.
In true baseball fashion, his biggest hit was his softest: a 75.5-mph ground-rule double.
“This is a very young player who had a great Triple-A season,” Counsell said Sunday. “We’re a little landlocked to get him at-bats.
He finished the first half not playing a lot.
So he’s getting a little opportunity, he’s found some holes and had some good at-bats.”
Bregman is having good at-bats, too, as Counsell also noted Sunday.
“The swing in the first was really good,” he said of Bregman’s homer. “A couple other hard-hit balls, for sure.
Hard-hit balls [Saturday].
He’s putting some good swings on the baseball and driving the baseball, as well.”
Indeed, Bregman smashed three pitches Sunday at exit velocities over 97 mph, two of them leading to outs and the other leaving the yard.
Bregman is capable of driving the Cubs’ offense, as long as those “feels” stick around.
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