WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Alex Bregman wasn\u2019t worried even as he grinded through an unremarkable first half in his opening months with the Chicago Cubs. He validated that attitude Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Bregman hit three homers in a game or the first time in Chicago\u2019s 12-6 rout of the Washington Nationals, continuing a torrid stretch in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old, who signed a five-year, $175 million deal in January, is hitting .388 (26 for 67) with six homers and 17 RBIs in 16 games since July 27, and he has the most hits in the majors in that span. He\u2019s homered four times in the first two games of the series at Washington, and six of his 16 homers this season have come against the Nationals.<\/p>\n
\u201cFeel like the last month or so has been a step in the right direction, but really the last two days have been a real step in the right direction,\u201d said Bregman, whose seven RBIs were also a career high.<\/p>\n
The Cubs scored in only three innings, but Bregman was a significant part of each rally.<\/p>\n
After walking in his first two plate appearances Wednesday, Bregman lofted a sweeper from Jake Bird into the visitors\u2019 bullpen in left for a three-run blast to cap a four-run fifth.<\/p>\n
In his next trip, he pulled a two-run shot to left off Yovanny Cruz as the final blow in a five-run sixth that made it 9-4.<\/p>\n
In the eighth, Bregman homered in his third consecutive at-bat, sending a fastball from Trevor Williams into the Cubs bullpen to drive in Seiya Suzuki.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe watched it in spring, with what he\u2019s capable of doing, and you\u2019ve seen it his whole career,\u201d said shortstop Dansby Swanson, who also homered in the eighth. \u201cHe\u2019s a special player when he\u2019s going right.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was Bregman\u2019s ninth career multi-homer game and his second against Washington this season. He also is the second Cub to hit three homers in a game, joining Swanson\u2019s effort against San Diego on July 1.<\/p>\n
Bregman has nine homers in 26 games since July 11 after hitting seven in his first 92 games as a Cub.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s why this is a good team,\u201d manager Craig Counsell said. \u201cWe have a different guy who can do that any day, maybe. Dansby\u2019s done it. Pete (Crow-Armstrong)\u2019s certainly done it. Ian (Happ)\u2019s done it. Seiya\u2019s done it. It\u2019s pretty cool and that\u2019s a great game. He definitely drove the bus today.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/p>\n
Patrick Stevens, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Alex Bregman wasn\u2019t worried even as he grinded through an unremarkable first half in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-856116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}