HOUSTON -- Astros third baseman Alex Bregman apologized Monday night for sending out a tweet prior to the start the Lone Star Series that served as bulletin-board material in the Rangers clubhouse before Monday's game, which the Astros won, 6-2.
The tweet said "opperation (sic) BTSOOTR"
"I made a rookie mistake," said Bregman, who went 1-for-3 with a run scored. "I shouldn't have tweeted that out. It was more of just trying to fire up our team. I shouldn't have put it on social media at all. They have a great team over there. I didn't mean to offend anybody over there.
"As you can see, it's a fun game any time you play them. They had our number last year. This year is a new year. Just a rookie mistake. I didn't mean to offend anybody over there. It was more of just trying to motivate our team. Poorly-worded, obviously. I misspelled a word -- another rookie mistake there."
The Rangers noticed.
"Somebody get the guy a dictionary," pitcher Keone Kela said.
The Rangers didn't have any problems figuring out what the anagram meant. Something about beating the …
"Good luck," outfielder Carlos Gomez said.
Astros manager A.J. Hinch said he was informed of the tweet -- which was still on Bregman's timeline post-game -- near the end of batting practice.
"As with most of Twitter, I just kind of roll my eyes," Hinch said. "Obviously, we're not trying to supply any bulletin-board material. They can do with it what they want. It's fun, but at the same time it's really unnecessary on both sides to really give a [expletive] about it."
The Rangers were more amused than angered by the tweet. Manager Jeff Banister said he didn't know anything about it.
"Who was it. ... Berkman?" Banister said.
No, it was not the former Astros outfielder Lance Berkman.
"Freedom of speech, man," first baseman Mike Napoli said. "You can do what you want. We worry about what goes on in our clubhouse. We don't worry about the outside stuff."
Napoli did admit that if a young Rangers player did that, it would not go unaddressed.
"I might have a conversation with them about it," Napoli said. "It's the whole learning process of being young and keeping it within your clubhouse. He's a good player, but if he feels like he needs to stay stuff like that to pump himself up, so be it."
The Astros took Bregman with the second overall pick of the 2015 Draft. The Rangers had the fourth overall pick and scouted Bregman extensively. They would have taken him if he had fallen to No. 4. The Rangers instead took pitcher Dillon Tate.