The All-Star center fielder had gone 3 for his previous 20 with seven strikeouts and no extra-base hits and the Cubs were headed into a mid-September three-game series against the eventual NL East champion Braves. He was still the overwhelming favorite to win the National League MVP, but things hadn't been going right. He popped out in foul territory in his first at-bat.
Next time up, PCA sent a rocket double down the right-field line. And it was, as they say, on. He finished the game with four hits, including a home run, and four RBI.
Two nights later, he went 3 for 4 with a triple and two home runs. In a single series against a playoff team, he had one four-hit game and another 11-base game. "When he hit the second homer, Alex Bregman was standing next to me," Cubs manager Craig Counsell said after the two-home run game (via MLB.com).
"I said, 'Alex, we don't get to see things like this.' You spend your whole life in baseball and you just don't see this happen on a baseball field. You're grateful to be a part of it. "You're grateful to see things like this.
And you're grateful that the fans get to see a season like this, because they're going to talk about it. They're going to tell their kids about it. They're going to tell their grandkids about seasons like this." Bregman has seen plenty of elite-level play, too.
The two-time World Series champion and four-time pennant winner played with 2017 American League MVP José Altuve and finished second himself in 2019. He was in the same division as Mike Trout for nine years. And Counsell is telling him about how special this is?
Extract — continue reading at the source.
