Before Game 3 of the ALCS between the Red Sox and Astros, Houston slugger Alex Bregman took to Instagram to troll Boston starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi by posting videos of him giving up back-to-back-to-back homers to the Houston during a game in June.
“Lil pregame video work,” Bregman captioned the post, which he has since deleted.
The problem for Bregman, who was one of the players who crushed a home run in the video along with teammates George Springer and Jose Altuve, is that Eovaldi doesn’t have social media.
Eovaldi found out about the video from his teammates, but called it a distraction and said he was just going to go out and pitch without any added focus.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who was with the Astros last year and knows Bregman well, was happy to hear it.
“If you need motivation in Game 3 of the ALCS, you better check yourself,” said the first-year skipper. “Because you win three more games, you go to the show. And that’s what should motivate you. Alex has different ways of motivating himself and whatever. I’ll leave it at that.”
Cora’s counterpart in Houston, Astros manager AJ Hinch, said he had no issue with Bregman taking online shots.
“Welcome to the current generation,” Hinch said. “Obviously there’s fun banter. We want guys to have their personalities, have their fun. Then go out and back it up.”
We’ll see if he does just that Tuesday when the Red Sox and Astros play at 5 p.m.
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