Gaby Sanchez told to abstain from first-inning bunts

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — For those Marlins fans that cringed at hot-hitting Gaby Sanchez bunting in the first inning last week in Baltimore and again on Monday, don't lambaste interim manager Edwin Rodriguez.

On both occasions Sanchez bunted on his own volition. He likely won't be doing it again anytime soon. Rodriguez spoke with Sanchez before Tuesday's game and discouraged the practice.

"I don't like that play," Rodriguez said. "He's not a normal second hitter … I said, 'Listen, I was giving you the benefit of the doubt, but to be honest I don't like to take the bat away from you. You can hit a double.' I don't like that play. I want him to be a little more aggressive."

Monday with no outs, Sanchez bunted Chris Coghlan to third. He ultimately scored on a Hanley Ramirez grounder to short that got past Jose Reyes. Thursday in Baltimore, Coghlan opened the game with a double and Sanchez sacrificed him to third. Ramirez came through with the RBI single as part of a four-hit, two-run inning.

"Just trying to get him over anyway I can," Sanchez said of his decision to bunt Monday. "Against a knuckleball guy, it's not easy to try to hit the ball to second base or to the right side because he doesn't even know what his ball is usually doing. For me, the easiest thing to do is try to bunt and get him over, let Hanley come in and get the run on the board and play with the lead."

The argument against that is teams are better off playing for a big inning early than a single run. Rodriguez said he wouldn't mind the play as much if the Marlins had a prototypical guy in the two-hole like Emilio Bonifacio. He wants Sanchez to swing away.

"Even if I'm swinging it well, I'm still part of the team and trying to win a ballgame," Sanchez said. "However I can try to move him over, however I can get him there for Hanley to drive him in, that's what I need to do. It's tough because fans look at it like, 'Why is he bunting in the first inning when he's swinging the bat well?' Why this? Why that?' I'm trying to win a ballgame. Getting a run early is big. If you can have the lead after the first inning, that's what you want to do.

"If I hit a groundball to shortstop, he doesn't move over, [I'm out] and [maybe] we don't score the run because he's not at third. You can look at it any way you want to. Of course, we would love to play to play for the big inning, but also we need to at least put one on the board and get things moving."



(sun-sentinel.com)

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