Alex Bregman had an amazingly petty ALCS

Alex Bregman has been a bit of a heel throughout this postseason. Scratch that. He’s been far more than a bit of a heel. And it’s been incredible. Before the ALCS started, I wrote that the cocky and petty attitudes of both teams were going to make it a fabulous series.

The series only truly lived up to the hype of two 100-plus win teams going at it during a few games of the series, but Alex Bregman came through with the pettiness for sure. Which is not a shock, Bregman relished his role as the Astros’ chief shit stirrer from the very beginning of October. In the Red Sox series, he came into his own and never let up an opportunity to call out Boston as a team or a player directly.

Here are all the ways Alex Bregman let his pettiness shine in the ALCS.

Now, this isn’t something that specifically happened in this series alone. He’s worn the number two since he’s been on the Astros. But it’s what I’m going to call “base petty,” that shows Bregman’s mindset as a baseball player and frankly as an all-around human being.

In case you don’t know, he wears number two because that’s the spot he was chosen in the 2015 draft. Yes, he has a chip on his shoulder because he wasn’t chosen first. As far as baseball villain origin stories go, that one probably isn’t getting its own movie but it’s fun to be reminded that he’s still bitter about it every once in a while.

An incredibly talented baseball player who already has a World Series ring at 24 and remains pissed about a draft decision three years ago. That’s good Base Petty.

During the sixth inning of Game 1 with the game knotted at two, Sox reliever Joe Kelly hit Alex Bregman with a 100 mph pitch and Bregman looked back at him on the mound as he went to first. He would come around to score and when he crossed the plate he stared Joe Kelly down again, which seemed to be a set up for some true shenanigans. Especially when you consider Joe Kelly has a penchant for scrapping.

Or at least, that’s what clearly happened to people watching. According to Bregman he wasn’t mad at Kelly at all, saying,

“No, I didn’t look back at [Joe Kelly] at all, I looked at Correa because I was fired up Correa did a good job. I wasn’t mad at Kelly at all. I know I looked back at the mound, but that was just because I was shocked 100 miles an hour hit me and it kind of hurt.”

“I knew he wasn’t trying to hit me. He is competing out there, trying to go in with a fastball and it just got away a little bit. It’s part of the game. He is not trying to hit a lead-off batter and he’s a great pitcher.”

Okay, sure Alex. Whatever you say. You don’t have to hide your petty from us.

The Astros wouldn’t win another game in the series after Game 1, losing Game 2 at Fenway and then getting swept at home. So starting in the second game of the series, Bregman’s pettiness started to get a little edgy. Even better, in my opinion. If you pull the heel move and things start going awry the only option is to lean into it. Otherwise you’re not really committed to being a villain, and Bregman is clearly committed.

At the end of Game 2, Bregman hit a pop fly and it was immediately clear that it was a game ender. Bregman admitted he knew it after the game, but that didn’t stop him from flaunting his confidence a little more. He said,

“I missed it. If I got it, it would have been on the street behind Fenway Park.”

He probably knew that street is called Lansdowne, but not naming it is a nice touch.

This is where things truly reach the next level of petty. Beautiful levels of petty that would play out over the next few games in the series. It started when, before Game 3, Bregman posted an Instagram story of the Astros hitting back-to-back-to-back home runs off Nathan Eovaldi, that night’s starter.

The Red Sox either said they didn’t see it or it didn’t bother them (Eovaldi was aware of it before his start), but Alex Cora had some comments about it after the game was over. Even referring to Aaron Judge’s “New York, New York” antics from the prior series.

“We didn’t know about Judge and we don’t know about Alex. If you need motivation in Game 3 of the ALCS, you better check yourself.”

Bregman deleted it before it was up for too long, maybe a directive from manager A.J. Hinch or someone else. But it was up for long enough for everyone to enjoy it and set things up to get even more fun later.

The pre-Game 3 “video work” wasn’t the only time Bregman had fun on Instagram this series. He mostly took Game 4 off from being petty but came back with a vengeance in Game 5. First, he posted another IG story of him in the car and singing along to Tom Petty (“Won’t Back Down” specifically) while screaming “game day!” and “let’s f***ing go!”

Then he switched to “Under the Bridge” but switched up the “I don’t ever want to feel like I did that day” lyric to “I don’t ever ever want to feel like I did last night.” Which brings us to the other part of Game 5 that Bregman was having some fun with.

That adapted lyric was a reference to Bregman making the last out again in Game 4 with a fly to left. Except it was inches away from being a game-winning hit, if it weren’t for Andrew Benintendi’s heroic and risky diving catch.

So before Game 5, while players were out on the field stretching, Bregman had some fun with Red Sox outfielder Benintendi about it with the Sox outfielder ribbing him in return.

On the brink of elimination and still talking a little smack? This is why Bregman’s postseason run was so great. He really did not care what the circumstances were, he just went for it.

As you know the Astros were, in fact, eliminated. Bregman’s antics were then turned back on him by Red Sox players, the official Red Sox account, and even their mascot. Rough break for the Astros’ third baseman.

During the game, David Price looked over at him from the Red Sox dugout after a stellar start and said “post that.” Marvelous.

Then, after the game, both the Red Sox Twitter account and Wally the Green Monster’s Twitter account posted a “lil postgame/series video work” directly aping Bregman’s original story.

When the mascot is dunking on you for losing the series you were so confident about, that’s rough. But that’s no reason for him to alter his behavior. In fact, I hope he watches these tweets every day of the offseason as motivation and then comes out twice as petty in April. Ramp it up. Dig in even more. Get T-shirts made or something.

The Red Sox even left one person in their mentions with some words of wisdom.

Maybe next year Bregman will be the one who gets to say that if he gets another ring, or exacts revenge against Boston. All I want is that he embraces the revenge narrative and this strain of satisfying pettiness he’s found instead of shrinking from the spotlight he made for himself.

Please come back exactly the same next season, Alex. As long as he’s not doing anything to annoy his own teammates then there’s no reason he shouldn’t do just that.