Christopher Mezzavilla | KNBR
In the Giants’ 6-4 series finale victory over the Dodgers, the SF lineup provided several exciting, powerful moments from the plate.
Brandon Belt’s first-inning solo home run. Steven Duggar’s two-RBI triple — complete with a helmet fly and a primal yell. LaMonte Wade Jr. and Brandon Crawford’s back-to-back laced doubles.
San Francisco (87-50) recorded 10 base-hits in all. But two hits may have flown under the radar. Neither resulted in runs, and neither traveled more than 90 feet — rolling. Brandon Crawford’s and Mike Yastrzemski both tapped deftly placed bunt singles Sunday. While they didn’t amount to much Sunday, going forward they could keep opposing defenses honest and add another dimension to San Francisco’s already dangerous offense.
“I know that’s going to probably go unnoticed in today’s game, but both (Yastrzemski’s) and Craw’s bunts both demonstrated that we can do a couple of things besides hit home runs,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said postgame.
Neither bunts played a major role in the series finale for the Giants, who lead the National League in home runs on the season. All six of SF’s runs came in the first three innings, off Cy Young contender Walker Buehler. But Crawford and Yastrzemski’s plays could change how defenses play them, Kapler said.
The frequency of sacrifice bunts has declined steadily for decades. The analytics say, generally, they’re an inefficient tool for scoring runs.
But Yastrzemski’s and Crawford’s bunts didn’t come with runners on. They both came with nobody on base, and they were both trying to bunt for a base hit.
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Crawford, leading off the fifth inning, noticed the Dodgers’ defense was overloaded to the right of second base. Teams shift all the time, and Crawford has seen plenty of them. Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager was the only fielder to the left of second, and he was still playing closer to the bag than a traditional shortstop.
So Crawford laid down a bunt down the vacant third baseline. It was just a bonus that the ball rolled perfectly along the grass and collided with the bag.
The next inning, Yastrzemski sensed a similar opportunity. He faced lefty David Price, who’s not the quickest fielder at age 36, and also saw first baseman Max Muncy — another heavy-footed fielder — playing deep. So Yastrzemski dragged a bunt between Price and Muncy and legged out a single.
For Yastrzemski, the bunt could help him gain confidence at the plate, Kapler said. He doubled in the first inning, but had previously struggled with his timing. In his last six games, Yastrzemski went 1-for-19 with seven strikeouts.
“These guys are pretty savvy and have good timing,” Kapler said. “I don’t think those are necessarily the reasons we won the game, but other teams around baseball are going to be watching that. They’re going to have to position their defenders slightly differently. Even if they’re just thinking about it a little. I think that’s a nice peripheral benefit for the game.”
