I’ve hated this forever. It doesn’t make sense in the regular season and is especially idiotic in the playoffs….
A baseball team has decided to shift their defense on a hitter that predominantly hits in one direction. Normally to right field. So there are 3 or 4 guys on the right side of the infield, 1 guy on the left side. Sometimes nobody at all on the left side. The hitter has 200 feet, at least, between him and the nearest fielder on the left side. Once again, and I can’t stress this enough, the left side of the infield is wiiiiiiide open. So any manager with a functional brain might say to his hitter, “Hey (insert Latin baseball player name here), maybe you should lay down a bunt to the left side and we will automatically have a runner on first with nobody out!” You would think that would be the case. Or the player could make an executive decision and say, “You know what, maybe I should be a team player and get on base.” They are giving you a free hit. And you know what they do EVERY. SINGLE. TIME? They hit into the shift. They ground out to short right field. EVERY TIME. And now there is 1 out and nobody on base. Good game plan. Am I the only one who this drives crazy?
Bunt the damn ball. Runner on first, nobody out. Take what they give you.