It’s rare for a team down by two runs to bunt with runners on first and second. You don’t want to waste an out when you’re trying to tie or win the game.
However, the LG Twins attempted a sacrifice bunt in a two-run deficit against the NC Dinos on April 21, taking a chance on the odds given the team’s batting situation and the opposing bullpen.
In the top of the sixth inning, trailing 1-3, No. 8 Park Hae-min singled and No. 9 Shin Min-jae attempted a surprise bunt on the first pitch, but the ball didn’t hit the bat and was called a swinging strike. Two pitches later, Park Hae-min stole second base. At this point, the LG bench bunted for Shin Min-jae. Shin laid down a bunt, but it was foul. Shin Min-jae then hit a ground ball in front of the first baseman, sending Park Hae-min safely to third base for a sacrifice bunt. Hong Chang-ki followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-3.
In the top of the eighth, there was a bunt with two outs. After a leadoff double by Moon Bo-kyung, Kim Min-sung, No. 7, bunted from the first pitch, but three consecutive pitches gave the 3B a favorable count. They could have waited for one ball, but another bunt came, and this time Kim Min-sung bunted safely to put runners on first and third, and Park Hae-min hit a single to make it 3-3.
There was a reason why LG, the team with the best batting average, used a one-run strategy. First, LG’s batting didn’t go well on this day. They had runners on first and second in the first inning, runners on first and second in the second inning, and runners on second and third in the fourth inning. The only run came in the top of the third inning when Kim Hyun-soo doubled with runners on first and second. Coach Yoon said, “We were stuck with a lot of outs in the early innings. It didn’t work out because we thought we could get one out. So we tried to take it one run at a time,” he said.
Another factor was the opposing bullpen. NC has had a lot of bullpen attrition lately. After Choi Sung-young was hit by a pitch in the third inning, the team used six bullpen arms. Although the opposing bullpen was solid, LG thought that if they could tie the game with a single run, they would have the advantage in the bullpen battle that followed. While NC quickly brought in their closer, LG had a lot of reserves in their bullpen as starter Im Chan-gyu pitched until the 7th inning.
After tying the game in the eighth inning, LG managed to pull off the upset against NC’s bullpen, which used up all of its relievers until Lee Yong-chan in the top of the 10th. After Hong Chang-ki hit a two-run double, the LG bats exploded, scoring six runs in order to win the game.먹튀검증
A game of calculations and probabilities. It was the small ball of small balls, but LG was able to end their four-game losing streak in the NCs and stay in the race for first place with SSG Landers.