sacrifice

Question
should the visting team in the top of the seventh inning, leading by two runs, no outs, man on second base and a mediocre batter at the plate bunt or hit away ?

Answer
Lou:  Thank you for your question.

While there is no set, right or wrong answer to this situation, there are numerous factors to consider as a coach decides what he/she may want to do.

The first is generally driven by your personal coaching philosophy.  Are you a station to station coach, a go for the big inning coach or a use all available strategies coach.

What kind of day has the hitter coming to the plate had?  Has he owned the pitcher, or struggled all day.

Do you feel you have the pitching to hold the other team to under 3 runs, or do you think you need to have more than a 3 run lead to feel comfortable.

Picking up that third run will definitely change the other team's strategy, as well as limit their options for what they will be comfortable doing in the bottom half.

Offensively, one important thing to consider is that there are 25 ways to score from third base, that you are not able to score on from second base.  While these 25 don't always occur frequently; they only occur when the runner is on third base.  On my website I have a page dedicated to these 25 ways to score.

For me, I'm willing to give up the out to move the runner over, as my options are going to increase.  The infield will have to play up, which will add .150 points to the hitter's average coming to the plate.  The pressure is all on the defense as we are already ahead.  The pitcher and catcher now have to worry about passed balls and wild pitches, so they may be reluctant to throw breaking balls in the dirt, should get the hitter better pitches to swing at.

Anytime you bunt and put the ball in play, you create pressure for the defense.  If they are thinking about all the things you can, or might do, there is a greater chance they will make a mistake.  When you bunt, they have to make adjustments, someone has to field the ball, make a throw and someone has to catch that throw.  All opportunities for a mistake to be made, mentally or physically.

If they execute it perfectly, they get the out; but you now have a runner on third, with less than two outs, and the pressure on the defense has just gone up a couple of notches.  With the pitcher's mind occupied somewhat with the runner, maybe he leaves a ball in the middle of the plate for the hitter, or he rushes his delivery and throws the ball away.  The options at this point are in favor of the offense.

Ty Cobb said,"Attack, Attack, Always Attack."  Once you have put the ball in play on offense, there is not much to go wrong.  Once the ball is in play, there are numerous opportunities for the defense to make a mistake.  Keep the pressure on.

While there is no steadfast rule, I tend to lean towards making my opponent play the game.  If they have to defend the field from three foot in front of the plate to the outfield fences, your chances for success get better.

As a coach, I have always felt that I had a responsibility to create an offense within which every player had an opportunity to be successful.  Not everyone can hit; bunting provides a way for someone who doesn't have great hitting skills to be productive and successful offensively.  This is one of those situations where that might apply.

Yours in baseball,

Rick