Alex

Bregman

Bregman accounted for three of the 18 hits Chicago totaled in Kansas City, continuing his productive second half. He has yet to get blistering hot, but his recent play has been an improvement over a below-average first half. Bregman remains an everyday player batting in the heart of one of baseball’s highest-scoring lineups, and the counting stats have added up to strong fantasy production lately.

Pete-Crow Armstrong scored the winning run on a throwing error that took place while he was stealing third in the 11th. Bregman’s dramatic homer came with two outs in the ninth and resulted in Louis Varland’s first blown save of the year. The surge isn’t fully backed up by his exit velocity numbers, but Bregman is hitting .299 with five homers and nine doubles in his last 21 games. He also stole a base today, giving him three that season. That matches his high total since 2019.

Bregman smacked a one-out double off of Andre Pallante in the fourth inning and scored the Cubs’ first run on an error by Lars Nootbaar. He then poked an RBI double into right field off of Luis Gastelum to give the Cubs the lead in the 10th before scoring on Ian Happ’s RBI double. The 32-year-old third baseman is now hitting .248/.341/.381 with 11 home runs, 47 RBI and a pair of stolen bases in his first 487 plate appearances with the Cubs.

One day after picking up four hits against the Cardinals, Bregman added three more in a blowout victory for the Cubs. The 32-year-old doubled — his 18th of the season — and singled twice, while improving his season line to .245/.339/.374 in his first season with the Cubbies. That’s still nowhere close to what Bregman and Chicago were hoping for when they signed the infielder to his massive deal, but it’s beyond possible we’ll see more efforts like this from Bregman over the final two-plus months. He’s too good a hitter to have a slash that poor.

It’s the first four-hit game and second four-RBI game for Bregman this year, but it wasn’t quite as encouraging as it sounds; the homer left his bat at a mere 97 mph and the two doubles were a 93-mph grounder and a 67-mph fly down the right field line. It was sufficient to bump his OPS up to .705. The last time he finished a game over .700 was on May 31, a day that also saw him hit a homer against the Cardinals.

Bregman has really been scuffling at the plate over the past month, slashing .186/.298/.353 with four homers and 19 RBI over 121 plate appearances in his last 26 games. Perhaps taking a day off to clear his head will do him some good. Pedro Ramirez will man the hot corner in his absence and will bat eighth against Braxton Ashcraft and the Pirates on Sunday afternoon at PNC Park.

Bregman made it 2-0 Cubs in the first inning off a completely ineffective Zebby Matthews. That’s the 10th homer for Bregman in his first season with the Cubs, and he’s now driven in 43 runs. He also drew a walk, and it improves his slash to a still-disappointing .239/.336/.362.

Bregman’s home run was his eighth of the season. He hit a two-run shot off Reds reliever Julian Garcia. It’s Bregman’s second home run in his last 10 games. He’s hitting .236 with a .678 OPS and 37 RBI with one game left before the All-Star break.

There was little Bregman or any other member of the Cubs lineup could do after trailing by 11 runs by the time they came to bat in the fourth inning. Alas, Bregman is trying to get his season on track. His double was just his sixth extra-base hit since the beginning of June as he’s trapped in a power outage.

The Cubs just gave Dansby Swanson a two-day break, but Bregman is probably more worthy of being held out of the lineup. He’s hit .243/.327/.342 with just 19 RBI in 297 plate appearances. In 75 at-bats with runners in scoring position, he’s hit .173 with a lone double as his only extra-base hit.