To bunt or not to Bunt, that is the…..
So far this year, Lou Piniella has pulled all the right strings. He’s pinch hit when he’s needed to, made the right defensive adjustments and leaned on the right guy at the right time. But here in Section524 we’re having a little debate about whether Lou made the right move in Monday’s loss.
Situation: Cubs down 4-0. Matt Mutron leads off the bottom of the 5th with a walk and goes to 2nd on Pagan’s groundout. Kendall draws a walk (cause lord knows he can’t hit). Piniella then takes down Lilly for a pinch hitter, Ronny Cedeno, who proceeds to pop up the 1st pitch on the infield. Soriano then strikes out to end the inning.
The Problem: Was letting Cedeno hit away the right move, or should Piniella have had someone lay down a bunt to put runners on 2nd and 3rd for Soriano.
Down 4-0, Piniella was looking for the big inning and in that situation didn’t want to give up the out. I was with Piniella in this situation. The Cubs weren’t doing much va. Hamels and the possibility for a big inning were there. Of course, it would have been nice in Cedeno hadn’t swung at the first pitch after Hamels walks two guys in front of him.
But the argument for having Cedeno or Lilly bunt is a compelling one. Basically, you put runners on 2nd and 3rd with two outs and have essentially a 30 percent chance of Soriano driving in them both. You also put a little pressure on the Phils as to whether or not they want to pitch to Soriano, or walk him and load the bases for Theriot.