ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A week after a fouled-off baseball did significant damage to Alex Bregman’s face, Bregman returned the favor, doling out punishment to the baseballs.
The Cubs’ third baseman launched a pair of home runs as part of a four-hit day in a 6-2 win over the Red Sox in the regular-season finale Sunday, showing the type of impact he can make as the team eyes a deep playoff run.
“I did want to feel good before the playoffs,” Bregman said. “I wanted my swing to feel like it did right before I got hit. I felt good mechanically today.”
Bregman, the $175 million free-agent signee who figures to be a key factor in how far this team can go in the postseason, continues to marvel his fellow Cubs with what he’s doing, by merely taking the field so quickly after what happened.
“I’m not surprised that he’s performing when he’s back on the field. I’m surprised that he’s back on the field,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Him being back on the field is what we should all appreciate and admire.
“This is not normal that a player is back on the field right now after what he’s been through. You still see what he looks like, frankly, and that tells you what he’s still going through. That’s what I’m surprised by.
“But his performance, I don’t think it surprises you.”
Indeed, this is the sort of thing the Cubs long expected from the uber-accomplished Bregman, even back when he was mired in such a deep slump that he was getting booed at Wrigley Field.
His manager and teammates assumed he would finish the season with the sort of numbers he’s put up throughout his career, and wouldn’t you know it, that’s what happened.
Thanks to a huge second half, Bregman wrapped the campaign with 28 home runs — the third-highest total of his career — and a right-where-it’s-supposed-to-be .819 OPS.
“The first four months of the season, I don’t know what that was. I’m embarrassed to have put that on tape,” Bregman said. “But the last two months of the season, that’s who I am as a player. I’m proud to know that, no matter how big of a hole I dug myself, I found my way back out of it and [finished with an OPS] over .800.
“I learned a lot this year, and I feel like I got better as a pro.”
After the Cubs scored just nine runs over their five previous games, they wrapped their regular season with a half dozen on Sunday, finally escaping the chilly, windy conditions of Wrigley Field and Fenway Park in a game relocated to Florida.
While it might not wipe away all fan concerns over what’s possible in the postseason, it was a good day for the bats — they banged out 13 hits — ahead of a trip to San Diego for a best-of-three playoff series against the Padres.
There are a lot of questions following the Cubs as they head to the West Coast and the lights get their brightest. But their long-held championship-level goals are still in front of them.
And the belief hasn’t left the clubhouse.
“When you show up to spring training, that’s what you work the whole offseason for, to start this and be able to play meaningful games in October. That’s exactly what we’ve done,” lefty reliever Ryan Rolison said. “It hasn’t been perfect this year. We’ve been through a lot of adversity, guys stepping up in spots. Now we’re here, and we’re going to make some noise here in October.”
“When we put games together,” righty reliever Ryan Zeferjahn said, “I don’t know who can beat us.”
For Bregman, the two-time World Series champ who’s done more than almost any other hitter in postseason history, he sees in these Cubs the right ingredients for the sort of success he’s had previously in his career.
“A togetherness. An attention to detail,” he said. “Guys that know what they do well and know what they need to do to prepare.
“When it comes to the playoffs, it comes down to executing. You’re playing against the best teams in the world. If you do that, you’re in a good spot.”
