ATLANTA — It was just Matt Vierling’s fifth time at bat in the postseason, but it doesn’t take a degree in October Baseball to understand the importance of an extra 90 feet.
“You need every run you can get,” Vierling said after the Phillies edged Atlanta in the opener of their National League Division Series. “We won 7-6, so you can tell that it meant a lot to get every run that we could get.”
That’s why he ended his fifth postseason plate appearance with a perfectly placed sacrifice bunt — the first of his big league career — to move Jean Segura to third after a leadoff double in the fifth inning. The sacrifice bunt became almost extinct this season after the National League adopted the designated hitter, but the Phillies have turned back the clock in the playoffs. It’s working.
Both of their sacrifice bunts — Bryce Harper laid one down in the third — led to runs and both were done without instruction from the dugout. The Phillies started the season with a lineup built to slug its way into October. But they turned Tuesday to an old-school, small-ball approach to do what it took to take Game 1.
“It seems like it’s a ‘Whatever it takes’ kind of thing,” first baseman Rhys Hoskins said. “We just have a general philosophy of, ‘Hey, you might be asked to do things that you haven’t done all season.’ But if we get opportunities with guys in scoring position, we feel pretty good about that.”
The Phils weren’t the only team to phase out the bunt this season as Atlanta finished the season with just one sacrifice bunt and waited until Game 161 to drop it. The Dodgers laid down three, the Cardinals had five, and the major league average was 13. The Phillies have used four sacrifice bunts in three postseason games after laying down just six over 162 regular-season games.
“I think it just shows how unselfish we are,” Vierling said. “It’s a testament to the leadership and what it takes to win these ballgames. I’m new to this playoff baseball, but I’m starting to learn that it takes stuff like that to win ballgames. Unselfish baseball.”
The National League, playing its full season with a DH, averaged just 0.08 sacrifice bunts per game. That rate is 63% less than what it was last season when pitchers were still hitting and 81% less than the rate of sacrifice bunts in 2009.
The game has changed. Not only are pitchers not hitting, but teams seem to rely more and more each season on home runs, and small ball has become almost extinct. But this is October, when every pitch is magnified and an extra 90 feet in the third inning could decide a game.
“That’s giving them free rein, but for the most part I would like those guys swinging the bat unless they’re leading off an inning, we’re down and we need some runs, that type of thing,” manager Rob Thomson said. “But the Vierling one was on his own. He was giving himself up, moving a runner, nobody out with a runner at second base. And I thought that was a really good play.
“This is a very unselfish club, and that’s the way they’re playing. We get ahead and they’re adding on runs. Our situational hitting was really good today.”
Harper’s bunt moved J.T. Realmuto to second after Realmuto started the third by reaching on an error. Harper said he was trying to bunt for a hit but it didn’t work. Nick Castellanos followed with a double and Alec Bohm’s sacrifice fly scored Realmuto.
“Anytime you can take a chance to get a run in,” Harper said, “that’s what you want to do. So it definitely worked out today.”
Vierling has bunted this season for hits and failed to convert his one sacrifice attempt. He said his last sacrifice bunt came in the minor leagues. So why not try it in Game 1 against the defending champions? Segura moved to third and Edmundo Sosa, the next batter, drove him in with a sacrifice fly. Small ball was en vogue.
“Sac bunting and playing the game of baseball like that shows a lot about what this team is trying to do,” Vierling said.
