Bunting in front of Mateo — whaaaat?

[Frobby]

One of the oddest things last night was McKenna’s sac bunt to move Urias to 3B, in the 2nd inning of a 2-0 game at the time.  I think bunting in the 2nd inning is always questionable, but in this case, even more so, with out machine Jorge Mateo due up next.  And of course, Mateo had an unproductive, one-pitch at bat, hitting the ball directly to the 3B so that Mateo couldn’t score.  Adley salvaged the situation with a chopper through the middle that scored Urias, who surely would have scored from 2B on that same hit if the sacrifice had never occurred.  

Was anyone else scratching their head (or yelling at their TV set) about this?  I sure was.  And I wonder if that was a Hyde call, or something McKenna stupidity decided to do on his own.  

 

[interloper]

Yeah that was weird. Have to wonder if McKenna did that on his own. But also - probably not a good idea to bat your bunt options back-to-back.

Please hurry, Cedric. 

[OriolesMagic83]

4 minutes ago, Frobby said:

One of the oddest things last night was McKenna’s sac bunt to move Urias to 3B, in the 2nd inning of a 2-0 game at the time.  I think bunting in the 2nd inning is always questionable, but in this case, even more so, with out machine Jorge Mateo due up next.  And of course, Mateo had an unproductive, one-pitch at bat, hitting the ball directly to the 3B so that Mateo couldn’t score.  Adley salvaged the situation with a chopper through the middle that scored Urias, who surely would have scored from 2B on that same hit if the sacrifice had never occurred.  

Was anyone else scratching their head (or yelling at their TV set) about this?  I sure was.  And I wonder if that was a Hyde call, or something McKenna stupidity decided to do on his own.  

 

Maybe .Chennai was trying to give Mateo a lesson in bunting.

 

[OriolesMagic83]

Just now, OriolesMagic83 said:

Maybe .Chennai was trying to give Mateo a lesson in bunting.

McKenna

 

 

[RVAOsFan]

Mateo is still on this team... whaaaaaatttt?????????

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

59 minutes ago, interloper said:

Yeah that was weird. Have to wonder if McKenna did that on his own. But also - probably not a good idea to bat your bunt options back-to-back.

Please hurry, Cedric. 

I wish Mateo was a viable bunt option, but he’s been usually terrible when asked to make a sacrifice bunt.  With Mateo’s speed you think it would be a skill he would have acquired.

 

 

[Morgan423]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

And of course, Mateo had an unproductive, one-pitch at bat, hitting the ball directly to the 3B so that Mateo couldn’t score. 

I was honestly kind of amazed at Mateo's ability to bat and be on base at the same exact time.

[Moose Milligan]

I wasn't yelling at my TV because I wasn't aware of the lineup.  I didn't know Mateo was up next.  

I suppose that the hope was that Mateo would make some sort of contact and get the run home.  

[sportsfan8703]

1 hour ago, interloper said:

Yeah that was weird. Have to wonder if McKenna did that on his own. But also - probably not a good idea to bat your bunt options back-to-back.

Please hurry, Cedric. 

I'm thinking Mckenna wanted to "do the job" and get the runner over.  In order to do that, he droppe down a sac bunt.  I don't think we'll see that again with Mateo up.  

[Fiver6565]

I didn’t like the move at the time for precisely that reason. If McKenna was the 9 hitter and Adley was up next, sure, expand the lead a little even early in the game. But I’d just let McKenna bat there given Mateo behind him. Lot of hard contact vs Ryu at that point, and McKenna is capable. 

[jabba72]

I was pretty upset while watching the mlb.com stream.

[Roy Firestone]

By far, the stupidest thing all night was Toronto's  manager John Schneider intentionally walking Hays to get to Gunnar...who promptly singled and busted the game open...it was waaaaay more stupid than Mc Kenna bunting in the second inning...

[Hallas]

The problem is having 2 pitchers in the lineup that makes bunting in that situation even remotely viable.  I don't hate bunting there.  Force the defense to play up against Mateo.  BABIP against a drawn in infield is like 60 points higher.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

2 minutes ago, Hallas said:

The problem is having 2 pitchers in the lineup that makes bunting in that situation even remotely viable.  I don't hate bunting there.  Force the defense to play up against Mateo.  BABIP against a drawn in infield is like 60 points higher.

McKenna has a 101 OPS+ this year he has been nowhere near Mateo levels of bad this season. It's only 86 at bats, but he hasn't been a black hole on offense.

[RZNJ]

I didn’t see it but it’s definitely questionable strategy.  Hopefully, it was McKenna being stupid, not Hyde.