If there was a memo to be diplomatic in response to Alex Bregman’s Instagram jab, Steve Pearce didn’t get it.
The Red Sox first baseman had strong words for Bregman after the Houston Astros third baseman posted several Instagram videos trolling Boston’s American League Championship Series Game 3 starter, Nathan Eovaldi.
“Wow. I don’t know why he would do that,” Pearce told WEEI’s Rob Bradford on Monday. “We do our talking on the field. If he wants to run his mouth now we’ll see who is talking at the end of the series.
“I don’t think he needs to run his mouth. He’s one of the best players in the game. If that’s his personality, that’s his personality. Nothing against the guy. If that’s how he has to motivate himself, whatever.”
Bregman eventually deleted the videos, which appeared on his Instagram story and showed Jose Altuve, Bregman and George Springer hitting three consecutive home runs off Eovaldi during a June 20 game while the pitcher was on the Tampa Bay Rays.
Pearce was the only Red Sox player to fire back at Bregman over his troll job; Eovaldi said he was aware of the videos but downplayed them, while Red Sox backup catcher Blake Swihart, who grew up with Bregman, tried to see things from the young Astro’s perspective.
“To me, in his mind, he’s probably thinking he’s trying to pump up his team, get everyone excited,” Swihart told Bradford. “It might have come off the wrong way. I know he deleted it now. I think he was just trying to pump everybody up, that’s all.”
There’s nothing wrong with a little spirited back-and-forth in an AL pennant series, so if Bregman fired up his own team while providing a little bulletin board fodder for the visiting Red Sox ahead of Tuesday’s 5:09 p.m. ET first pitch at Minute Maid Park, all the better.
