Baseball’s unwritten rulebook strikes again
Bunting for a single against the shift when losing 7-0 is apparently ‘bad for baseball’
Ah, the familiar sights and sounds of baseball. The crack of the bat. The pop of the leather. The bunfight over unwritten rules.
We didn’t even get through the first weekend of the 2018 season without one of those, as the Minnesota Twins were deeply chagrined when an Orioles hitter had the temerity to bunt against the shift in the ninth inning.
Why, that’s just not how the game is played, son. (Spits tobacco, hitches up pants.) And turn that damn music down.
The funny thing about this latest incident is it reveals the unwritten rules — as much as they hearken back to the days before artificial turf and domed stadiums — are constantly being updated. It must be tough for players to keep up, what with the rules not even being written down.
A brief recap of the dispute in question: Baltimore was trailing 7-0 in the top of the ninth. Minnesota starter Jose Berrios was still in the game and still mowing down batters. The Twins shifted their infield defence to put an extra fielder on the left side of the diamond against Chance Sisco, who sounds exactly like a character in an Elmore Leonard novel but is in fact a left-handed Orioles catcher. Sisco, trying to shake things up, dropped down a bunt on the right side, where there were no fielders, and made it to first base easily.
Aside from getting himself on base, which is precisely the point of baseball, Sisco’s bunt threw off Berrios’ rhythm just a titch. The next two batters also reached base, but he worked himself out of the bases-loaded jam to end the game.
And that really should have been that.
But, no. Local media reported the Twins made it very clear they were displeased.
Infielder Brian Dozier: “Obviously, we’re not a fan of it. He’s a young kid. I could’ve said something at second base but they have tremendous veteran leadership over there.”
Dozier is so confident Sisco committed a grave offence against baseball that he is certain Baltimore’s veterans will give him a stern talk and maybe send him to his room without a cookie.
Twins outfielder Eddie Rosario said of the bunt: “Nobody liked that. No, no, no. That’s not a good play.”
The pitcher said he didn’t care and it was bad for the sport in the space of two sentences.
“I don’t care if he’s bunting,” Berrios said. “I just know it’s not good for baseball in that situation. That’s it.”
I dare say he does care.
So many things are strange about this. The affront seems to be Sisco was doing something other than just taking his hacks. In that situation in a seven-run game, the unwritten rules apparently state batters are simply supposed to go through the motions, to swing away and get themselves out nice and quick so everyone can get on a plane sooner.
Sisco, by beating the shift, was being altogether too clever.
But if it was wrong to bunt against a shift when down by seven, wouldn’t it be just as wrong for the team leading by seven to be using a defensive shift? The Twins were up big and needed only a couple of outs. Did they really need to deploy advanced defensive strategies?
They didn’t, but as baseball old-timers will tell you, it’s the one sport that has no clock. There is no impossible comeback, so if a team normally sets up in a shift against a pull hitter in the first inning, they might as well do it in the ninth. The mere fact the Twins were still treating this like a normal at-bat says everything: The game wasn’t over yet. Which was exactly how Sisco approached it. His bunt effectively started a last-ditch rally, even if it ended up fizzling.
Why would opponents take offence at such things? It’s another mystery of that rule book that isn’t a book, where it is OK to crush a defenceless fielder with a takeout slide and where bat flips and home run trots are to be quickly followed by a fastball to the ribs.
Truly, more batters should bunt against the shift in all situations. As teams use it routinely, the best way to combat it would be to bunt enough to give the manager second thoughts about shifting. It’s almost like many hitters feel the bunt against the shift is beneath them. As though it is an unwritten rule.