BALTIMORE — Amidst the hype about the Yankees’ “Torpedo” bats, Alex Bregman received one from the Marucci bat company.
“We’ll see if I end up using it or not,” Bregman said before the Red Sox’ 3-0 victory over the Orioles Wednesday night, after he’d had his first shot at hitting with the bat — which features both a larger barrel (to the MLB limit of 2.61 inches) that is both slightly longer and closer to the handle than typical bats and a narrowing top of the bat to ensure a normal weight distribution.
Bregman, who went 1 for 4 with a single, downplayed the significance of his choice of lumber.
“I don’t really think it’s the bat. It’s not like anybody using it [is going to hit homers]. It’s the guy,” said Bregman.
That said, Bregman did indeed use it in the game. He flied out to left in his first at-bat and singled in his second.
Bregman had a scrape on the bridge of his nose, the result of a faceplant following a shovel pass on an attempted force play at second base on Monday.
He had ranged far to his left and attempted the backhand flip while off-balance. He got rid of the baseball, but his hands couldn’t stop his fall, and Bregman head-butted the dirt after ridding himself of the ball.
While Bregman said his nose was fine, he compared the impact of his face on the dirt to a car crash, resulting in soreness in his neck.
Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him @alexspeier.
