Don’t swing at a 3-0 pitch when your team has a big lead. Don’t bunt to break up a no-hitter. Don’t steal a base when your team has a big lead. Don’t bunt when your team has a big lead.
There are a lot of “don’ts” in baseball, and those mentioned are all part of the ridiculous “unwritten rules” that come up every so often in a game.
For instance, the Giants’ Mauricio Dubón bunted for a hit Tuesday night despite San Francisco holding an 11-2 lead on the Padres. Was he being disrespectful? It’s unlikely. Dubón entered the game with just one hit to start the season, so it must have felt good for him to reach base safely.
On the other hand, Padres manager Bob Melvin didn’t seem pleased, as you can see in this video from Jomboy.
The Padres were not pleased with Mauricio Dubon bunting for a base hit with a nine-run lead and it looks like Giants manager Gabe Kapler agrees pic.twitter.com/Uh7R0bae5G
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) April 13, 2022
And Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer, the former Royals player, said he told Dubón his team was unhappy with the bunt.
“I definitely told him how I felt, how we felt about it,” Hosmer told MLB.com. “He said it was a sign given to him by their staff. I just told him I think you’ve got to be a little bit smarter in that situation. You’ve been playing professional ball for a good amount of time obviously if you’re at this level. You’ve got to be smarter than that.”
Although that Jomboy tweet says Giants manager Gabe Kapler did not approve of Dubón’s bunt, that wasn’t the case.
Kapler was asked about it after the game, and he backed Dubón and Steven Duggar, who stole second base with the Giants up 10-1 in the second inning.
“I full support both of those decisions,” Kapler told reporters after the game. “I support the decision that Duggar made, Also support the decision that Dubon made to bunt right there. Our goal is not exclusively to win one game in a series, it’s to try and win the entire series. Sometimes that means trying to get a little bit deeper into the opposition’s pen and I understand that many teams don’t love that strategy and I get why.
“It’s something that we talked about as a club before the season, and that we were comfortable with that strategy. It’s not to be disrespectful in any way, it’s because we feel … it’s the best way to try and win a series.”
Melvin told MLB.com he had no comment on the bunt. The Giants won 13-2, and San Diego used five pitchers in the game along with outfielder Wil Myers who worked the ninth inning.