DETROIT -- Before Saturday’s game against the Tigers, manager Dusty Baker sat in the visitors' dugout at Comerica Park and bemoaned Alex Bregman’s ability to keep himself in the lineup.

The Astros are in the midst of the most competitive division race in baseball, and Bregman wants to be a part of every game. With a 9-2 win over Detroit on Saturday, the Astros remained one game behind Seattle and Texas, who are tied for first in the American League West. The Mariners have clinched the season series against Houston, meaning they own the tiebreaker between the two teams. Houston leads the season series against the Rangers, 6-4, with a three-game series in Arlington remaining Sept. 4-6.

As the Astros battle it out down the stretch, Bregman has missed only one game all season, and Baker is being cautious. He’s working with Bregman to not just play hard, but play smart: Play the game in a way that’s sustainable and won’t get anyone hurt.

But somehow, Baker can’t seem to get Bregman off the field.

“Every time I’m going to give him a day off, he gets like three hits,” Baker said. “I don’t tell him; I think he can kind of feel it.” 

Baker didn’t have a day off planned for Bregman in the near future -- but when Bregman took the field a few hours later against the Tigers, he played like he wanted to avoid one.

Bregman crushed an RBI double to the right-center-field gap in the first, a bolt off his bat at a 100 mph exit velocity. In the fifth, after the Tigers had tied the game and Detroit starter Eduardo Rodriguez seemed to have settled into a rhythm, Bregman turned things up a notch, slugging a two-run homer to left. He came through again in the sixth, walloping another RBI double down the right-field line. For good measure, he added a walk in the second and the eighth.

The Astros broke out for nine runs after being held to one run in consecutive games and just one hit in the series opener. The surge came up and down the lineup card, as Chas McCormick and José Abreu picked up two RBIs each and Houston pounded out 14 hits, but Bregman led the charge.

Whatever adjustments Bregman has made since the All-Star break are certainly working: After batting .240/.338/.387 in the first half, he’s hitting .303/.407/.555 in the second. His OPS, which stood at .725 at the All-Star break, has risen to a season-high .799.

It's not exactly out of character for Bregman, who has a career .820 OPS in the first half, compared to .918 in the second.

“He’s a second-half guy,” Baker said. “His OPS is always a lot higher in the second half. He’s at .260 -- hopefully, next stop [is] .270. He’s driving in runs and scoring. It was a big night for Alex.”

In the quest for his ideal swing mechanics, Bregman remembered when it all felt right: in the series finale in Miami on Aug. 16, when he crushed a solo homer in the first inning of a 12-5 win.

As he slugged three extra-base hits against Detroit and reached base five times on Saturday, Bregman didn’t feel that his swing was quite there -- but it was close.

“When it’s close to that, it’s a good day at the yard,” he said. “When it’s not close to that swing, mechanically, it’s a grind, and you go up there and battle every time.”

Even as Bregman puts together a superstar-level second-half surge, Baker has diligently minded his third baseman’s health and long-term sustainability.

“I’ve got my eyes on him, how he’s running or how he’s moving,” Baker said. “When he hit into the [groundout in the 9th], I was hoping that he didn’t really bust it, because we’ve got to take care of him.”

The team has to take care of Bregman, but he is helping out by taking care of himself. Indeed, Bregman doesn’t see playing every day and playing sustainably as two conflicting goals. He sees the former as a reward for the latter.

“My job is to come here and play every day,” he said. “I want to put myself in a position -- with sleep, nutrition, preparation -- to be able to perform every single day at a high level. … I think I owe that to my teammates.”