The unwritten bunting rules

It’s been a weird week for me, between the late-night west coast games and the holiday, which makes my day job extremely busy. All of this is to say: I straight-up missed the Fanpulse results from last weekend. I should have posted them around Thursday, but here we are on Monday and I’m just doing it now. Such is life from time to time!

Rather than focus on the poll results around Red Sox fans feelings about the team, I’m going to focus a bit more on the national question this week. We’ll still get to the local stuff at the end, it’s just a little more out of date right now.

Is it okay to bunt to break up a no-hitter?

Ah, the most classic of all debates around baseball’s unwritten rules. There are always new unwritten rules popping up, but this one has been around forever and always elicits strong responses. I was actually a little surprised by the results here, which is not the same as saying I disagree. I don’t understand this idea that, after six innings or so, the pitcher has earned the right to play a different version of baseball in which bunting can no longer exist. A no-hitter and perfect game is getting through 27 outs of normal baseball without a hit or a baserunner. The rules don’t change when you get close to history, whether it feels cheap or not. This is especially true in the modern era with shifting. If you are going to shift a guy in the ninth inning of a no-hitter, he shouldn’t feel like he can’t drop a bunt for a hit against the shift because he might get beaned the next day. If you want to open up half the field, you reap what you sow. Obviously this is a little different if you’re in, like, a beer league or something. At the highest level, though, get through the 27 outs if you want your glory.

Red Sox confidence creeping up

Now, onto the local stuff. As I said, this stuff is a little outdated as this poll was taken following the Padres series. They’ve played two series since then, winning four out of five. When this poll was taken, somewhat surprisingly confidence in Alex Cora fell from 71 percent to 58 percent. On the other end, confidence in the team rose from 13 percent and 27 percent. This was the first time this year we’ve seen trends go in these directions. Typically, Cora has kept the confidence of the fans while the team’s has fallen. I can’t really explain the reasoning for this one.