Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman finally might have unlocked something in his swing.
Just as when teammate Dansby Swanson broke through ‘‘the dam’’ last month that had been keeping his hitting at bay, Bregman appears to have found ‘‘the feels’’ at the plate.
After hitting two home runs in June, Bregman was homerless this month until he went deep July 11-12 in Cincinnati. The second of those homers was accompanied by a single and a double, and Bregman drove in four runs.
Unfortunately for him, the All-Star break cost him those ‘‘feels,’’ and he went 0-for-7 in the first two games back, Friday and Saturday against the Twins. For reasons that defy explanation, the ‘‘feels’’ returned Sunday, when he hit a two-run homer in the first inning, giving him three homers in five games.
‘‘The first two days just felt a little off,’’ he said after the Cubs’ 10-1 victory. ‘‘What we were working on right before the break felt better today. We kind of figured out what was going wrong. So [I] felt good. The swing felt just like it did in Cincinnati, which was nice.
‘‘Feels better. Feels much simpler.’’
Feels. What does that mean?
‘‘Players are just trying to find feels that work for them,’’ manager Craig Counsell said. ‘‘That’s what Alex is referring to. The beauty of hitting and the madness of hitting is that it’s a constant life search for it, and it feels like, once I find it, why does it ever go away?
‘‘That’s why hitting’s hard. And that’s why you work and you practice and keep trying to find it. The feel is here today, and you might have to find a new one tomorrow.’’
Sometimes those feels are all a hitter needs to get back in the groove. If not for quadriceps injuries in 2021 with the Astros and last season with the Red Sox, Bregman probably would have entered this season coming off five in a row with 20 homers. He didn’t forget how to hit dingers, but that feeling of hitting them became elusive. His homer Sunday finally put him in double digits this season.
The Cubs stuck with Bregman, 32, during his drought because that’s what you do when you give someone a five-year, $175 million contract. And hitting was all he had to worry about Monday in the opener of a three-game series against the Tigers at Wrigley Field. Bregman was the designated hitter for only the sixth time this season.
Cubs president Jed Hoyer told the Sun-Times the team wanted to get Bregman off his feet while keeping his hot bat in the lineup. In his place at third, the Cubs gave another start to rookie Pedro Ramirez, who has his own hot bat. While going 2-for-4 as the DH on Sunday, Ramirez scalded three pitches at exit velocities faster than 100 mph.
In true baseball fashion, his biggest hit was his softest: a 75.5 mph ground-rule double.
‘‘He finished the first half not playing a lot, so he’s getting a little opportunity,’’ Counsell said. ‘‘He’s found some holes and had some good at-bats.’’
Bregman is having good at-bats, too, as Counsell also noted Sunday.
‘‘The swing in the first was really good,’’ he said of Bregman’s homer. ‘‘A couple of other hard-hit balls, for sure. Hard-hit balls [Saturday]. He’s putting some good swings on the baseball and driving the baseball, as well.’’
Indeed, Bregman smashed three pitches Sunday at exit velocities faster than 97 mph, two of them leading to outs and the other leaving the yard.
Bregman is capable of driving the Cubs’ offense, as long as those ‘‘feels’’ stick around.
