Rough Start For Bregman Turns Around

HOUSTON–After weeks of fans clamoring for his callup, top prospect Alex Bregman finally arrived at Minute Maid Park on July 25.

The hype surrounding the Astros’ series opener against the Yankees exceeded the hype for any of the slew of major league debuts Houston had seen in recent years.

But the results over the week that followed proved just as stunning as the swiftness with which Bregman, a shortstop who was the No. 2 overall pick from Louisiana State in 2015, rose through the system.

Bregman, who dominated pitchers all season at Double-A Corpus Christi and Triple-A Fresno, began his big league career with a brutal slump. The 22-year-old needed 19 at-bats to collect his first hit and 15 more to collect his second.

After batting .306/.406/.580 with 44 extra-base hits in 80 minor league games, Bregman found himself batting .057 without a long hit through his first nine games for the Astros.

“I got away from something I was doing before,” Bregman said before a 1-for-3 day on Aug. 4. “I was using a little bit too much body, trying to hit the ball too hard instead of just squaring it up like I had been doing.

“It didn’t even start when I got here. It was like the last two or three games in Triple-A. It kind of got away from me a little bit.”

The 6-foot, 180 pound Bregman closed his mere 18-game stint at Triple-A with an 0-for-11 stretch over his final three games, which made the timing of his callup somewhat odd.

A July 26 hamstring injury to the Astros’ Luis Valbuena kept Bregman at third base, where he excelled with the glove. He had also appeared at shortstop and in left field.

The Astros are confident success with the bat will follow.

“I’ve just been missing the pitch that I should be hitting,” Bregman said. “(I’ve been) chasing a little bit, but also just missing the pitch that I should hit.”

After that rough start, Bregman went 14-for-43 in the past 10 games with two homers.

SPACE SHOTS

• Righthander Joe Musgrove struck out eight in 4 1/3 innings of relief in his major league debut against the Blue Jays, the organization that made him a supplemental first-round pick in 2011.

• The Astros promoted catcher Jake Rogers, a third-round pick this year, to low Class A Quad Cities. The Tulane product batted .253 with a .794 OPS in 25 games at short-season Tri-City.