07-28-2009, 08:09 PM
Good find, dk.
<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->Angels manager Scioscia gambled that Erick Aybar, with a runner on third and one out in the ninth inning of a tie game, could execute a suicide squeeze on a 2-and-0 offering from Red Sox reliever Manny Delcarmen.
Instead, Aybar made a feeble pass at the pitch, and pinch-runner Reggie Willits was run down by Boston catcher Jason Varitek, who after tagging Willits had the ball dislodged from his glove when he hit the ground. But Varitek held on to it long enough to satisfy third-base umpire Tim Welke.
“Erick’s a terrific bunter,” Scioscia said afterward. “He feels obviously badly he didn’t get it down. It was a great count for it. Delcarmen throws hard, which is a challenge, but I think it was, you know, a buntable ball. Erick just didn’t get it done, and that happens.”
The attempted squeeze is not inconsistent with Angels baseball, an aggressive style of play in which they run and bunt and go from first to third and generally try to pressure the opposition into mistakes. Scioscia had employed the suicide squeeze successfully here at least twice in recent memory, once by little David Eckstein back in August 2002, the season that the Angels won the World Series, and once just this past July, when catcher Jeff Mathis dropped a suicide squeeze during a six-run sixth inning.
The play is not an unknown in October, either. In Game 1 of the 2003 playoffs, Oakland catcher Ramon Hernandez beat the Red Sox in extra innings with a two-out, bases-loaded bunt, which wasn’t a suicide play because the runner on third didn’t break until after Hernandez put bat on ball, nor technically a squeeze, since there were two outs. Two years later, in Game 3 of the 2005 playoffs against the White Sox, Juan Uribe squeezed home an insurance run as the Red Sox were eliminated.
In 1997, Omar Vizquel of the Indians was supposed to drop a suicide squeeze against the Orioles but missed. But so did Orioles catcher Lenny Webster, and Marquis Grissom crossed the plate with the winning run in the 12th inning.
In Game 5 of the 2001 playoffs, Tony Womack of the Diamondbacks missed a suicide squeeze, and runner Midre Cummings was tagged out. Then in the same at-bat Womack delivered a game-winning hit.
Braves manager Bobby Cox in the 1991 postseason asked a pitcher, Tom Glavine, to drop a suicide squeeze on a 2-and-2 pitch with the bases loaded. That play blew up, too, as Glavine missed the sign. In 1998, Cox asked Walt Weiss to squeeze – he popped into a double play.
<b>The play, clearly, is fraught with peril. There’s a reason they call it suicide. The percentages are stacked against its success. A soft ground ball would score a runner like Willits from third. A base hit. A fly ball. A wild pitch.</b>
A suicide squeeze, when it fails, is the kind of play that can kill a rally, can kill momentum, and on Monday night, can kill a season.
Aybar is the Angels’ best bunter. He had nine sacrifices in 2008, the fifth-most in the league. He also bunted for a hit safely nine times.
But of his nine sacrifices this season, none came on a squeeze play. Scioscia was asking a 24-year-old kid, who before this season had one postseason at-bat, to execute a suicide squeeze with a season hanging in the balance. The Red Sox were not surprised that the Angels might try; one Sox strategist said afterward he hoped they would.
There would be no bunt, and no recovering for the Angels.
“I’m not going to second-guess my manager,” said Angels center-fielder Torii Hunter. “He made the decision, and I’m going to stand by him. If it had worked, nobody would be saying anything.”<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Not that there was ever any doubt, but after reading that article I'm even more convinced that I'm 100% correct in my assertions here.
<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->Angels manager Scioscia gambled that Erick Aybar, with a runner on third and one out in the ninth inning of a tie game, could execute a suicide squeeze on a 2-and-0 offering from Red Sox reliever Manny Delcarmen.
Instead, Aybar made a feeble pass at the pitch, and pinch-runner Reggie Willits was run down by Boston catcher Jason Varitek, who after tagging Willits had the ball dislodged from his glove when he hit the ground. But Varitek held on to it long enough to satisfy third-base umpire Tim Welke.
“Erick’s a terrific bunter,” Scioscia said afterward. “He feels obviously badly he didn’t get it down. It was a great count for it. Delcarmen throws hard, which is a challenge, but I think it was, you know, a buntable ball. Erick just didn’t get it done, and that happens.”
The attempted squeeze is not inconsistent with Angels baseball, an aggressive style of play in which they run and bunt and go from first to third and generally try to pressure the opposition into mistakes. Scioscia had employed the suicide squeeze successfully here at least twice in recent memory, once by little David Eckstein back in August 2002, the season that the Angels won the World Series, and once just this past July, when catcher Jeff Mathis dropped a suicide squeeze during a six-run sixth inning.
The play is not an unknown in October, either. In Game 1 of the 2003 playoffs, Oakland catcher Ramon Hernandez beat the Red Sox in extra innings with a two-out, bases-loaded bunt, which wasn’t a suicide play because the runner on third didn’t break until after Hernandez put bat on ball, nor technically a squeeze, since there were two outs. Two years later, in Game 3 of the 2005 playoffs against the White Sox, Juan Uribe squeezed home an insurance run as the Red Sox were eliminated.
In 1997, Omar Vizquel of the Indians was supposed to drop a suicide squeeze against the Orioles but missed. But so did Orioles catcher Lenny Webster, and Marquis Grissom crossed the plate with the winning run in the 12th inning.
In Game 5 of the 2001 playoffs, Tony Womack of the Diamondbacks missed a suicide squeeze, and runner Midre Cummings was tagged out. Then in the same at-bat Womack delivered a game-winning hit.
Braves manager Bobby Cox in the 1991 postseason asked a pitcher, Tom Glavine, to drop a suicide squeeze on a 2-and-2 pitch with the bases loaded. That play blew up, too, as Glavine missed the sign. In 1998, Cox asked Walt Weiss to squeeze – he popped into a double play.
<b>The play, clearly, is fraught with peril. There’s a reason they call it suicide. The percentages are stacked against its success. A soft ground ball would score a runner like Willits from third. A base hit. A fly ball. A wild pitch.</b>
A suicide squeeze, when it fails, is the kind of play that can kill a rally, can kill momentum, and on Monday night, can kill a season.
Aybar is the Angels’ best bunter. He had nine sacrifices in 2008, the fifth-most in the league. He also bunted for a hit safely nine times.
But of his nine sacrifices this season, none came on a squeeze play. Scioscia was asking a 24-year-old kid, who before this season had one postseason at-bat, to execute a suicide squeeze with a season hanging in the balance. The Red Sox were not surprised that the Angels might try; one Sox strategist said afterward he hoped they would.
There would be no bunt, and no recovering for the Angels.
“I’m not going to second-guess my manager,” said Angels center-fielder Torii Hunter. “He made the decision, and I’m going to stand by him. If it had worked, nobody would be saying anything.”<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Not that there was ever any doubt, but after reading that article I'm even more convinced that I'm 100% correct in my assertions here.