Unser Chat » HOUSTON (AP) — Ask any Houston Astro and

they’ll say the same thing: Alex Bregman was made for these moments.The young third baseman was great for the defending champions all season and now that the calendar has flipped to October he’s taken his play to another level http://www.indiansfanproshop.com/authentic-b.j.-upton-jersey , slugging two home runs to help Houston to a 2-0 lead in the AL Division Series against the Cleveland Indians.“He loves the bright lights,” praised George Springer, MVP of the World Series last year. “He loves the big stage … he believes he should get a hit every time or make the big play or score the big run. That’s just who he is and when you have a guy like that it makes you want to do the same thing.”Game 3 is Monday in Cleveland.The 24-year-old Bregman had the best year of his career this season, leading the AL with a career-high 51 doubles, and setting career marks by hitting .286 with 31 homers and 103 RBIs. His breakout season helped carry the offense in a year where last year’s MVP Jose Altuve and star shortstop Carlos Correa struggled with injuries.“He brings joy to the team,” Altuve said. “He shows up here and lets everybody know he’s ready to play and … you see how he plays and you’re like: ‘OK. I want to join him, and I want to play at the same level he’s playing.'”Bregman gave Houston its first run of the playoffs this season when he hit a solo homer off Corey Kluber in the fourth inning of Game 1 on Friday. It was the first of four homers hit by the Astros in a 7-2 win. The Astros were up by 1 in Game 2 on Saturday when Bregman connected off Trevor Bauer with two outs and none on in the seventh to add some insurance in the 3-1 victory.“This is what it’s all about,” Bregman said. “This type of baseball is a blast. Everybody in that clubhouse is living and dying on every pitch. It’s fun to play these types of games.”Bregman, the second overall pick in the 2015 draft, hit four homers and drove in 10 runs in his postseason debut last season to help the Astros to their first World Series title. He homered twice against the Dodgers in the World Series, and his two-out single in the 10th ended Houston’s thrilling 13-12 win in Game 5.Selected as an All-Star for the first time, he hit a tiebreaking home run in the 10th inning at Nationals Park in July that sent the AL to victory.Bregman never seems daunted by important moments despite having played just two full seasons in the majors.Manager AJ Hinch said Bregman has a “calm heartbeat” and he knows the Astros can always count on him when they need a big play whether it be on offense or defense.“I love how he describes pressure. He describes pressure as a privilege,” Hinch said. “That, to me, shows someone that gets it, someone that is going to be able to handle the moment.”Though Hinch and the Astros have come to expect this level of play from the former LSU standout, the manager sometimes takes a step back simply to appreciate his greatness.“It’s amazing to watch him do it time after time after time Joe Carter Jersey ,” Hinch said. “We’re getting spoiled. Guys aren’t supposed to do it at this level at that rate he’s been doing.”Altuve, who became the first Astro to win MVP since Jeff Bagwell collected the National League award in 1994, has been wowed by Bregman’s development this season. In a stacked MVP race led by Boston’s Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez and Angels star Mike Trout, Altuve believes that his teammate’s season was the most impressive.“Bregman does something big for us every single game,” Altuve said. “He’s the kind of player that you really want to have on your team. He had an MVP season. He’s my MVP.”Bregman isn’t interested in discussing individual awards and accolades and says his only focus is helping the Astros repeat as champions. And as much as he’s done so far, he’s constantly working to do more and get better.“This was definitely, definitely something I envisioned doing, (but) I think there’s so much room to improve on both sides of the ball, and I look forward to working on it,” he said. It took the entire season, but the Orioles eventually figured how to get the best of of Jimmy Yacabonis, and it was not as a middle relief pitcher."The previous regime of Orioles baseball decision-makers liked to move their players around a lot. The “Norfolk shuttle” became a running joke within the local media and fanbase. The first, and perhaps most frequent, rider of that shuttle this season was Jimmy Yacabonis, who was called up on seven different occasions in 2018 alone. Following his final promotion, in September, the 26-year-old right-hander finally seemed to find his groove http://www.indiansfanproshop.com/authentic-b.j.-upton-jersey , and he may now have a shot to become a crucial piece of a forward-thinking O’s rotation.Starting a game was a new experience for Yacabonis. The Orioles drafted him as a reliever out of Saint Joseph’s University back in 2013. Between his debut in short-season Aberdeen that summer and the completion of the 2017 season with the Tides, the New Jersey native had appeared in 190 minor league baseball games, all out of the bullpen. Then, there was a change of plans.Jon Meoli from the Baltimore Sun has the full story. In short: As spring training approached, there was a ton of uncertainty, both inside and outside of the organization, regarding the Orioles starting pitching depth. Given his physical frame and pitching repertoire, Yacabonis was deemed to be an ideal candidate to switch from bullpen to rotation.The plan made some sense. Yacabonis had worked his way to the majors in 2017, appearing in 14 games as a reliever, but it did not inspire much confidence. He had an xFIP of 6.65 over 20.2 innings to go along with abysmal 3.48 K/9 and 6.10 BB/9 rates. His high-effort delivery was part of the reason he had a fastball in the mid-90s, but it could also be why he was so erratic. Stretching him out might force him to slow things down and reign in his precision a tad.Down to Norfolk he went to be extended into a starter capable of going (eventually) five or more innings. He had modest success until a run from May 17 through June 9 in which he started five games, threw 23.2 innings and allowed just two runs on 12 hits, six walks, and 19 strikeouts. All told, he had a 3.38 ERA in April, 3.10 ERA in May and 3.00 ERA in June as a minor leaguer. He was impressive, albeit in relatively abbreviated outings for a typical starter.Unfortunately Corey Kluber Jersey , things did not go as well when he was called up to Baltimore. From the start of the season through August 25, Yacabonis pitched in six games for the Orioles, including four starts. In those games, he coughed up 18 runs on 25 hits, nine walks, five home runs and 16 strikeouts across just 19.1 innings. Opponents were hitting .313/.389/.563 and his MLB ERA for the year was all the way up at 8.38. Perhaps, it seemed, the conversion to starter was misguided after all.Those struggles continued back down to Norfolk, where Yacabonis made his final start of the season on August 30, allowing four runs in just 2.2 innings of work. Despite the trouble he had experienced throughout the season in the bigs, the Orioles promoted him up once more as part of their September roster expansion. It turned out to be a stroke of genius to bring Yacabonis back into the fold. He put together his best month of the season, throwing 20.2 innings over six appearances (three starts) while serving up just six earned runs, which converts to a 2.61 ERA. Those numbers are buoyed by his final three outings of the year, all of which were starts (11.1 innings, one earned run, seven hits, seven walks Ricky Vaughn Jersey , seven strikeouts).No one is going to mistake Yacabonis for a Cy Young candidate, but he showed that he can be productive. He can get major league hitters out, but that success comes in a specific scenario. Lucky for the righty, now may be the best time in baseball history to have this exact ability.It’s an extremely small sample size, but if the Orioles are going to make any one of their pitchers into a Rays-style “opener”, Yacabonis is the obvious pick. In the seven games he started with the Orioles this season, opposing hitters batted .172/.226/.259 the first time they faced him. Likewise, pitches 1-25 produced much better outcomes (.153/.286/.288) than the offerings that followed. Same goes for the first (1.29 ERA) and second (1.12 ERA) innings when compared to the third (8.00 ERA) frame and beyond.Yacabonis’s struggles as a starter should come as a surprise to no one. He was a reliever in college and throughout the pros with a fastball-first approach that relied on good velocity, slight movement and a good-enough slider. A real third pitch never developed, and it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon. That does not sound like the package of a pitcher that can get major league hitters out multiple times in a game.For Yacabonis, that can be a feature of his game rather than a bug. “Openers” have become a viable strategy for MLB teams. The Rays rode that model to a 90-win season. The Athletics tried (and failed) to implement the plan in a real live playoff game. Given the current construction of rosters, it’s not viable to employ nothing but openers and bullpen-style pitchers, but it could work for the Orioles once or twice a week. It sure looked like Buck Showalter had started to figure out how to best utilize Yacabonis as the 2018 season came to a close. Showalter won’t be back next year and neither will his boss, Dan Duquette. But Yacabonis has done more than enough to show off the extent of his abilities. What the next manager and coaching staff do with that information remains up in the air. Yesterday: Paul FryMonday: Austin Wynns