You often hear today in MLB that there is not enough small ball being played. Many hitters aim to swing for the fences almost every at bat. Barely anyone is looking to sacrifice themselves for the good of the team. This was the case with Michael Conforto in yesterday’s (8/13/24) ATL vs SF game, in the 8^th inning. With men on first and second and no outs, and the Giants down by 1, instead of bunting and moving the runners into scoring position with less than two outs, he grounded into a double play, effectively stifling SF’s chances of taking the lead. The tying run eventually came around to score on a wild pitch later in the inning, but after that with two outs and no runners in scoring position, the chance of taking the lead was immensely reduced. Indeed, no additional run was scored by the Giants and the game was tied after 8 innings.

After a scoreless ninth, ATL and SF went to extra innings for a second straight game. Atlanta was able to score their ghost runner (ghost runner refers to the player that is placed on second base at the beginning of every top and bottom half of extra innings) in the top of the 10^th. In the bottom of the inning, the top of the Giants’ lineup was due with shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald leading it off. He entered the game 13 for his last 37, good for a .351 batting average and had homered earlier in the game. With the tying run on second, he (or manager, Bob Melvin) decided it’d be a good idea to try to lay down a bunt. This was very poorly executed as the ball bounced right in front of the plate allowing ATL’s veteran catcher d’Arnaud to easily get to the ball and fire to third base to get Casey Schmitt, the lead runner (exactly what you are trying to avoid by bunting). In the end, after some negotiation by Melvin and an official umpires review, they declared a batter interference, retiring Fitzgerald and putting Schmitt back on second.

As a Giants fan, I would have loved to see Fitzgerald swing the bat there! Given his recent hot streak, it felt like he had a real chance at getting the game-tying RBI or at least moving the runner over to 3^rd with less than two outs. The next hitter, Lamonte Wade Jr. then hit a flyball to center field that would have been deep enough to score the tying run on a sacrifice fly. Alas, no one was on third so that flyball was wasted. Then, Heliot Ramos ended the game with a deep flyball to left field caught by Jerred Kelenic to seal the victory for the Braves.

All in all, there are times when you should be trying to lay one down and other times when you shouldn’t. There can be some grey area on situations when you should or shouldn’t but as a fan, I expect a guy like Bob Melvin who has been in MLB both as a player and manager for nearly 40 years to see those differences. Also, with his experience he should be able to instruct any of his players (even his cleanup hitter, Michael Conforto) that they are to lay down a bunt with two men on and nobody out.