Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

HOUSTON — No sooner had the signal been given from the Washington dugout that the hooting started in the Houston dugout.

Let's gooooo!

No respect!

The Astros shouted at Alex Bregman all the way as he made the trek from the on-deck circle to home plate. They couldn't believe it. World Series, Game 3, sixth inning...and Nationals manager Davey Martinez had ordered a two-out intentional walk to Michael Brantley to load the bases for Bregman.

"We were yelling big," Astros catcher Robinson Chirinos said.

This was the Astros' cleanup hitter. The guy who closed hot enough that he may swipe the American League Most Valuable Player Award from Mike Trout when the hardware is announced in November. The guy who just became the fifth player in MLB history to reach at least 41 homers, 119 walks and 37 doubles with 83 strikeouts or fewer. In doing so, he joined Barry Bonds (1993), Ted Williams (1949), Lou Gehrig (1936) and Babe Ruth (1924 and 1921).

Let's gooooo!

No respect!

So here's where Bregman takes a mighty swing, sends the baseball rocketing toward Capitol Hill and the Astros laugh all the way into the night, right?

Not quite.

Instead, Bregman smacked a sharp ground ball to third base to quietly end the inning.

But the next night.…

In what arguably will go down as Houston's most important game of the season, considering the Astros were attempting to pull even with the Nationals at two games apiece and avoid falling within a game of elimination, Bregman cracked an RBI single in the first inning. In the seventh, he then became only the second third baseman in World Series history to hit a grand slam. In 114 previous World Series', only Ken Boyer of the St. Louis Cardinals had done it in 1964.

"I could see it coming," said Astros shortstop Carlos Correa, who had predicted Bregman's breakout five-RBI evening after Game 3 the night before. "That walk to Michael so they could pitch to him? That set him on fire.

"When you do that to A-Breg, he's going to come back the next day and he's going to be A-Breg. He was born for this. He's born for the big moments. You can contain him for a couple games, but not for the whole series. The man is unbelievable."

Don't get him started.

The No. 2 that Bregman wears on the back of his Astros uniform? It serves as a daily message to all who see it and care to digest the details: He was the second overall pick of the 2015 draft.

The Arizona Diamondbacks spent the No. 1 overall pick on shortstop Dansby Swanson, who they later traded to Atlanta. Houston chose Bregman second. The chip has been on his shoulder ever since.

To locate the beginning of that chip, you have to trace back even further, to a place that includes another number story. A highly touted prospect as a schoolboy in New Mexico, Bregman had committed to Louisiana State, telling head coach Paul Mainieri, "If I get drafted in the first round, I'm going to sign [professionally]. If not, I give you my word, I'm coming to LSU."

"Alex had missed his entire senior year [of high school] with a broken finger, and for a team to take him in the first round would have been a big gamble," said Mainieri, who has been through this enough that he figured he would still lose Bregman to an early round anyway.

So on the first day of the 2012 draft, they zipped through the first round and the sandwich picks. So far, no Bregman.

"So the next day, they're holding Rounds 2 through 10, and Alex called me at 8:30 a.m. Albuquerque time," Mainieri says. "When he called, I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to gloat because he didn't go in the first round. I felt bad for the kid."

Instead, the conversation went like this:

"Alex, I don't know what to say," Mainieri said, hesitantly.

"Coach, don't say anything," Bregman replied. "I'm coming to LSU, and we're going to win a national championship."

"But Alex, what if someone calls you today? They probably already have. What are you going to tell them?"

"I'll tell them, 'Don't waste your time.' I'm a man of my word. That's what I'm doing, I'm going to LSU."

So the summer passed, autumn arrived and the baseball players reported. When Mainieri got around to asking Bregman what number he wanted to wear, the kid didn't hesitate.

"I've always worn No. 1," Bregman said. "But that's your number, and I'm not going to take the head coach's number. So give me No. 30. It'll remind me how many teams passed on me in the draft."

Technically, the Boston Red Sox picked him—but in the 29th round, a far cry from Round 1.

"The fall of his freshman year in 2012, he walks into my office, grinning from ear to ear. And when he smiles, his eyes get real squinty, and he says, 'Coach, if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have signed for $18 million, I'm having so much fun at LSU," Mainieri says. "Now, this is October. We haven't played a game yet. We haven't gone to Omaha [to the College World Series].

"He says, 'I love going to class [he was a sports administration major], I love walking across campus, I love my teammates.' How often do you ever see a kid that enthusiastic? Most kids turn down millions wondering whether they did the right thing. This kid was so confident when he made that comment. And three years later, he's the No. 2 pick in the draft. He basically made $5 million coming to school for three years. He turned down $900,000 out of high school and made $5.9 million [the value of his signing bonus] three years later.

"And all we were doing was fall practice. He was so positive with what he was doing...that's why nothing he does is unbelievable to me. I've seen him do it time after time after time. I would not be surprised one day if I'm at the induction ceremony at the Hall of Fame for him. That's how much drive he has."

The No. 30 jersey lasted for one season. LSU's tradition is that its best player wears No. 8—the captain's number—and by Bregman's sophomore season, Mainieri and Co. pressured him to switch after multiple outlets named him the national freshman of the year and he was named to the USA Collegiate National Team.

Alex Bregman played his first season at LSU wearing the No. 30 as a reminder of all the teams that passed on him in the first round of the 2012 MLB draft.Stacy Revere/Getty Images

"I've never seen anybody so in love with the game of baseball and willing to commit himself so thoroughly to it," says Mainieri, the head coach at national powerhouse LSU since 2007. Before arriving at LSU, he was at Notre Dame (1995-2006), Air Force (1989-1994) and St. Thomas in Miami (1983-1988).

During Bregman's days at LSU, the only way Mainieri could get him off the field on some nights was literally to turn off the lights.

"Finally, I knew that wouldn't work because he'd go talk to the student-managers at 10 p.m. and get them to let him in," Mainieri says. "So I finally gave him a key. Eat, sleep, baseball—it's all true with Alex Bregman."

Bregman does not need much to, in the words of Correa, "set him on fire." A slight, real or imagined. Major. Minor. Whatever. Sometimes, maybe just a look, or, as we've seen, a tweet.

Consequently, you can imagine what a battle this month has been. Tampa Bay extended Houston to five games, and while Bregman belted a homer, two doubles and three RBI, he went unusually quiet in the League Championship Series against the Yankees: 3-for-18 (.167) with just one extra-base hit and one RBI across the six games.

The cooldown continued against Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Co. in the World Series. Bregman started off 1-for-13 with four strikeouts, including the 0-for-5 Game 3 in which the Nationals walked Brantley to get to him (which, by the way, wasn't exactly total disrespect, because the right-handed Fernando Rodney was pitching to the lefty Brantley, who was 5-for-11 at that point in the Series).

Behind the scenes, of course, Bregman was working as feverishly as ever.

"It's Alex Bregman," Astros reliever Brad Peacock says. "He figures out a way every time. And if he's not swinging well, he'll study video for, I don't know, six hours."

Outfielder Josh Reddick notes Bregman is always working.

"He's always working on something," Reddick says. "He probably takes a tee and some whiffle balls into his hotel room and hits into a net, for all I know."

Truth be told, the intentional walk in Game 3 wasn't the first time the spillover from Brantley in the No. 3 hole reached Bregman in the cleanup position.

Bregman served as Houston's No. 3 hitter almost every day through May 11, then bounced between second and third for the next two months. And when manager A.J. Hinch bumped him to fourth on July 30—where he's mostly remained since—Bregman initially disliked it enough that he went to talk to Hinch.

The manager explained that he liked Bregman sandwiched between two lefty hitters—Brantley in the three hole and hot-swinging rookie Yordan Alvarez in the five hole—because it balanced the lineup better.

Thus, the dilemma for the Astros' rivals later in games was: bring in a lefty reliever to face Brantley, and Bregman gets to face a lefty. Or if they don't have enough options, keep the right-hander in, then Brantley gets to face him.

At times, it did change how pitchers attacked Bregman.

With Michael Brantley hitting in front of him, Bregman thrived as the Astros' cleanup hitter this season, hitting 12 homers and driving in 36 runs in 34 games.Brandon Wade/Associated Press

"Sometimes when they bring in a left-hander, it's like an intentional walk unintentionally," Bregman says.

The move worked beautifully and, for Bregman, it was bombs away:

In 34 games batting cleanup this summer, he hit .405/.503/.818 with 12 homers and 36 RBI.

In 78 games batting third, he hit .276/.405/.544 with 17 homers and 49 RBI.

And in 36 games batting second, he hit .265/.411/.508 with nine homers and 20 RBI.

None of it is enough for Bregman. And you can bet even if he wins the MVP next month, it still won't be.

"I feel I can be way better," he says. "Way better. Not even close. In all facets of the game. Offensively, defensively, running the bases, I think there's a lot left. I can get a lot more physical, stronger. I can get faster, quicker. I need to get in the lab this offseason, hopefully after we win the World Series, and get better so I can help us win another one."

Bregman's personal hitting coach has been with him since he was 13 and has moved from Albuquerque to Houston to help keep the swing honed. A strength coach and a personal chef who oversees nutrition also comprise Team Bregman.

"He is all about winning, all about preparation," Hinch says. "He values all of the outreach and being able to bring his personality to fans and be a part of the baseball culture nationwide. But I think his priorities are exactly where they need to be during the season, all that emphasis on playing the game.

"His brand, or popularity, is great. But it's even greater when you play at this level and he knows what he needs to do to be a great player first and then utilize that outreach, whether it's YouTube followers, the Instagram posts, the motivation stuff...all of that is important to him, but none of it is more important than winning."

So as the Astros push to complete their comeback and wipe out the Nationals in four consecutive games, there is one more thing as we sail toward Game 6 on Tuesday night.

One night after getting burned by Bregman's grand slam, the Nationals came back for more in Game 5: Eighth inning, trailing 4-1 with Daniel Hudson in the game...damned if they didn't do it again, delivering an intentional walk to Brantley to get to Bregman...who flied out to right field.

So now, let's see what Bregman brings for Game 6. And please, if you feel safer ducking, we wouldn't blame you.

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.