Bad Call? Or Bad Execution?
The Phillies were down 4-1 in the bottom of the 9th inning. They had no outs, and guys on second and third. Castellanos rips a double, scoring both runs, and putting himself, the tying run, on second base with no outs.
Next, comes the decision that divides many. To bunt, or not to bunt? The Phillies decide to bunt and try to move the runner over to third with only 1 out. This plan backfires, as the Dodgers ran the wheel play. The wheel play means Mookie Betts shifts over to cover third, while both the third and first basemen charge for the bunt.
It brought out the entire “never bunt” crowd:
I do think that bunting here is a solid choice, but only if it is executed well. You need to bunt this ball down the first base side, making Freeman make the tougher play. Having to field the ball and then turn to throw is much harder than Muncy picking up and throwing the ball in the same motion.
We can not only blame the bunt, as Castellanos did a poor job on the bases as well:
I understand both sides and see how bunting here can kind of kill momentum. However, as a small ball fan, I loved this call, and if executed better, would have set the Phillies up very well to tie the game. They would have had the option for a safety squeeze, suicide squeeze, sac fly, sac hit, or even a base hit. My final thought is that bunting was the right call, it was just executed very poorly.