Inbaseball, asacrifice bunt (also called asacrifice hit) is abatter's act of deliberatelybunting the ball, before there are two outs, in a manner that allows abaserunner to advance to another base. The batter is almost alwaysput out, and hence sacrificed (to a certain degree that is the intent of the batter), but sometimes reaches base on anerror orfielder's choice. In that situation, if runners still advance bases, it is still scored a sacrifice bunt instead of the error or the fielder's choice. Sometimes the batter may safely reach base by simply outrunning the throw to first; this is not scored as a sacrifice bunt but rather asingle.
A successful sacrifice bunt does not count as anat bat, does not impact a player'sbatting average, and counts as aplate appearance. Unlike asacrifice fly, a sacrifice bunt is not included in the calculation of the player'son-base percentage. If theofficial scorer believes that the batter was attempting to bunt for a base hit and not solely to advance the runners, the batter is charged an at bat and is not credited with a sacrifice bunt.
In leagues without adesignated hitter, sacrifice bunts are most commonly attempted bypitchers, who are typically not productive hitters. Managers consider that if a pitcher's at bat will probably result in an out, they might as well go out in a way most likely to advance the runners. The play also obviates the need for the pitcher to run the base paths, and hence avoids the risk of injury. Someleadoff hitters also bunt frequently in similar situations and may be credited with a sacrifice, but as they are often highly skilled bunters and faster runners, they are often trying to get on base as well as advance runners.
A sacrifice bunt attempted while a runner is on third is called asqueeze play. A sacrifice bunt attempted while a runner on third is attempting to steal home is called a suicide squeeze.
Although a sacrifice bunt is not the same as asacrifice fly, both fell under the same statistical category until 1954.
Inscoring, a sacrifice bunt may be denoted bySH,S, or, occasionally,SAC.
The following players have accumulated 300 or more sacrifice bunts in their playing careers:
Since the beginning of thelive-ball era (1920), the career leader in sacrifice bunts isJoe Sewell with 275. He was first called up by theCleveland Indians late in the 1920 season shortly after Indians star shortstopRay Chapman died after being hit in the head by a pitch, the event which is generally regarded as the start of the live-ball era.
Though touted as good strategy by traditionalists, the sacrifice bunt has received significant criticism by modernsabermetrics. Simply, sabermetricians argue that the value of moving a runner to another base is offset by the team's sacrificing one of its limited and valuable 27 outs. An out conceded is an out wasted, in other words.
The following stats illustrate the argument. From 1993–2010, if a team had a runner on first base with no outs, on average it would score .941 runs from that point until the end of the inning. If a team had a runner on second base with one out, however, the average was .721 runs from that point forward. Thus, if a batter walks to lead off an inning, that team will, on average, score almost one run in the inning. On the other hand, that team decreases its run expectancy by 23 percent [(1 - 0.721/0.941) * 100%] if it successfully bunts and moves the runner to second with one out.[3][4]
Complicating affairs are the many difficulties and risks associated with bunting. The runner or runners on base must have speed, or the defense may get an easyforce out. Amanager could feasiblypinch run, but then his bench becomes smaller (that is, there are fewer substitute players available). The player at the plate must also lay down a quality bunt. That is, the player must lay down a bunt that does notpop up, gofoul, or go straight to a fielder. Even if all goes well, if the sacrifice bunt is successful, the team must still get ahit toscore the runner, and they now have 2 outs remaining instead of three.[5][6]
Writing forBaseball Prospectus in 2004,James Click concluded that pitchers should nearly always sacrifice bunt when the option is available to them, and that most position players should sacrifice bunt with a runner on second and no outs in situations where scoring at least one run is more important than maximizing run output (i.e. in the late innings of a close game). In all other situations, he found that sacrifice bunting hurts the sacrificing team more than it helps.[7]
