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April 19, 2007
The Red Sox tried two bunts in third, and got two hits out of that, even if one of them did go foul.
Alex Cora, leading off the inning, tried to bunt the first pitch he saw and fouled it off.
But that brought third baseman Jason Smith in a step or two on the turf, protecting against the bunt. So when Cora hit a soft looper toward the shortstop hole on the next pitch, Smith wasn't able to get back in time, the ball falling inside the line that indicates on turf the separation between the infield and the outfield.
Coco Crisp was next. He dropped down a beautifully deadened bunt in front of the plate and beat the throw from catcher Gregg Zaun for a base hit.
Cora faked a bunt on the first pitch he saw in the fifth inning, but had to back away from the inside fastball, taking it for a ball. He wound up grounding out to shortstop in the at-bat.
Crisp, though, opted to bunt again on the first pitch of the eighth inning, and again, he dropped a beauty in front of the plate and reached first safely. Crisp's two hits, put end to end, probably totaled about 47 feet.
In the ninth, Crisp crushed a ball about 398 feet and made an out to deep center, but at least it was a productive out, a sacrifice fly that gave the Sox a two-run cushion.
-- Steven Krasner
Posted by Steven Krasner 
at 1:39 PM | Permalink
