Astros slugger Alex Bregman trolled Red Sox Game 3 starter Nathan Eovaldi on Instagram Monday, but the incident raised an interesting question: Can you troll someone on social media, when that person doesn't have social media?
Bregman posted a video of Astros stars George Springer, Bregman and Jose Altuve hitting back-to-back-to-back home runs off Eovaldi earlier this year when he was a member of the Rays. Although Bregman has since deleted the post, the internet is forever.
Bregman’s instagram story right is a video of the Astros going back-to-back-to-back dingers off Nate Eovaldi in June.
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Eovaldi had an interesting response when asked about the video.
"I don't have any social media or anything like that," Eovaldi said (via the Houston Chronicle). "The guys have told me about it. I think home run clips, right? Something like that. Yeah, I'm aware of it."
Astros manager A.J. Hinch, who told Bregman to delete the video, admitted this was a new situation for him.
"That's the first question I've ever had in my career that had the word 'trolling' in it," Hinch told reporters. But he said Bregman's post was "all in good fun."
“Obviously, there’s fun banter,’’ Hinch said (via USA Today). “You go back and you hear New York, New York in Boston in the New York series. You get the different tweets and the different Instagram posts, and it’s all in good fun.
“And we have a sport full of great personalities and there’s a fine line. Is it disrespectful? No. If it crosses a line, if you have to question whether it crosses the line, it probably does."
Red Sox manager Alex Cora said it was great the Instagram post had people talking about Game 3.
“It’s always good that people talk about the game,’’ Cora said, “and if that's the reason they're talking about it, so be it. But from my end, I don't pay attention to that …
“People are paying attention, you know … Like, we need more people to talk about the game. We're in a great time to be a baseball fan. I've been saying that the whole season. You look at those two teams, you know, it's like, wow. I've been talking about talent.
“Alex Bregman is one of the best players in the big leagues. And now, well, they're talking, not for the right reasons, but they're talking about it. And I think it's cool."
Game 3 is Tuesday night at 5:09 p.m. (ET).