Alex Bregman Tries To Get Under Nathan Eovaldi's Skin Before Game 3

Astros third baseman Alex Bregman hasn’t recorded a hit in the ALCS, although he almost spoiled Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel’s Game 2 save and does have six walks, which gives him a perverted .000/.700/.000 slashline for the series. Maybe the video Bregman posted Monday on Instagram served two purposes: to annoy the Red Sox and to motivate him to get a knock.

Bregman’s “lil pregame video work” is a clip of former Rays starter Nathan Eovaldi—who was traded to the Red Sox and will start Game 3—serving up three consecutive gargantuan dongs to George Springer, Bregman, and Jose Altuve during the Astros’ 5-1 win on June 20. Here’s the high-quality version.

(This is beside the point, but did Bregman borrow someone else’s phone to take this video of a phone? Does he have two phones? Is Alex Bregman popular enough to justify having two phones? Does anyone really need two phones?)

By Monday night, the video had vanished from Bregman’s Instagram story, although it would’ve only been there for a maximum of 24 hours anyway. If it bothered Eovaldi, he didn’t show it:

“No, you know I don’t have any social media or anything like that,” Eovaldi said. “The guys have told me about it. I think home run clips, right? Something like that. Yeah, I’m aware of it.”

Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who was the Astros’ bench coach in 2017, didn’t seem to care, either:

“If you need motivation in Game 3 of the ALCS, you better check yourself, because you win three more games you go to the show,” Cora said. “And that’s what should motivate you. Alex has different ways of motivating himself. And whatever. I’ll leave it at that.”

Astros manager A.J. Hinch also wasn’t fazed by Bregman’s jab. As long as it didn’t cross a line, he didn’t mind “fun banter.”

Those philosophies seem fair. It’s harmless trash talk that doesn’t get too personal, and Bregman’s done a fine job of acting like a heel without being a total prick. Then again, Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge blared “New York, New York” from a speaker after his team won Game 2 of the ALDS against the Red Sox and the series moved back to the Bronx, and that turned out poorly for him. Even if the Red Sox claimed they didn’t care about that, they still trounced the Yanks, 16-1, in Game 3 and closed out the series with a Game 4 win in New York. Astros starter Dallas Keuchel had better not leave anything over the plate tonight.