Chilly in the shade

The sacrifice bunt put down by Lorenzo Cain with runners on first and second and nobody out in the first inning of a scoreless Game 4 of the ALCS on Wednesday was a brilliant piece of baseball strategy by the Royals. The world wonders why a club would ever give up an out to play for a run with your third hitter in the lineup as hot as any in baseball in the first, particularly against an explosive offense like the O'€™s.

I have the answer.

The Royals are batting .071 this season with a shadow between home plate and the pitcher. When it reaches the mound, that number jumps to .298. The shadow hadn'€™t yet reached the mound in the first. Additinally, we know that Eric Hosmer has grounded to first base 63 times this season. Steve Pearce has attempted to nail a base runner at the plate 103 times in his career and has made 18 errors.

Where did I get this data, you ask? I made it up, obviously.

I endorse analyzing baseball with the data we have, and I don'€™t think we should blindly ignore what we'€™ve learned. I caution against becoming too close-minded, however. It is certainly possible that the Royals have information we are not privy to.

I'm simply suggesting we stay open. You never know, Lorenzo Cain may experience a bout of daily muscle weakness in his core between 3 p.m. and 3:22 p.m. CT.