There's a reason Brian McCann is one of most shifted against hitters in the majors. The veteran catcher has become one of the most one-dimensional hitters in the league: Once a guy who twice hit .300 with as many as 42 doubles in a season, he's now a low-average slugger who tries to pull everything over the right-field fence. Only one of his 26 home runs has gone to the opposite field, and he has just 15 doubles. Plus, he's one of the slowest runners in the league, making him unlikely to attempt a bunt to beat the shift.
So as McCann led off the top of the 10th inning of Tuesday's intense, playoff-like game between the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays, the Jays went into a big overshift, with third baseman Josh Donaldson playing in a regular shortstop position. According to data from Baseball Info Solutions, McCann had been shifted in 356 of his 496 plate appearances entering the game, the sixth-most total shifts of any hitter. The Jays were doing what most teams do against McCann.
McCann bunted the first pitch from Mark Lowe into the vast, open space down the third-base line. Donaldson rushed in to make a play, but his hurried throw was wild and McCann reached on the bunt single, his third of the season. That jump-started a three-run rally that lifted the Yankees to a 6-4 victory, bringing them back to 2.5 games behind the Blue Jays, with the series finale on Wednesday. If the Yankees somehow come back to win the AL East, remember this bunt.
Most home run hitters abhor trying the bunt single against the shift. One, bunting isn't exactly like riding a bike. Two, they're trying to mash one over the fence. Three, it's not a test of their manhood and muscles. Small ball? In 2015, it's still mostly about trying to hit the ball hard, not hit the ball where they ain't. So give McCann credit for his gambit in the perfect situation to try it: no outs, tying run, the defense not expecting it. Do anything to get that go-ahead run on base.
How rare was McCann's bunt? Let's do a quick little study of the 15 hitters with the most shifts against them this season. Here they are with their totals for bunt-hit attempts and successful bunt singles (data via FanGraphs):
David Ortiz: 0/0
Chris Davis: 2/2
Lucas Duda: 0/0
Ryan Howard: 0/0
Brian McCann: 4/3
Anthony Rizzo: 2/1
Adam LaRoche: 2/0
Brandon Moss: 1/1
Prince Fielder: 0/0
Carlos Gonzalez: 3/1
Kyle Seager: 4/2
Mike Moustakas: 8/3
Adrian Gonzalez: 1/0
Pedro Alvarez: 1/0
Colby Rasmus: 6/4
As you can see, McCann is Brett Butler compared to most of these guys. (That's a reference to 1980s-'90s outfielder Brett Butler, one of the greatest bunters ever who once had 42 bunt hits in a season.) After his bunt, Slade Heathcott reached on catcher's interference and rookie Greg Bird deposited a 2-2 slider over the fence in right field.
Anyway, it was one of my favorite games of the season. The crowd was electric. Marco Estrada gave up two runs in the first inning but settled down. Hard-throwing rookie Luis Severino bounced back from his last outing against the Jays -- his only poor start so far in the majors -- and pitched six strong innings. The game got really fun in the eighth with the score still 2-2. John Gibbons eschewed his usual eighth-inning guys (Aaron Sanchez and Brett Cecil) for Liam Hendriks. Cecil had pitched three days in a row while Sanchez had pitched three days out of the past four and has allowed runs in four of his past five appearances.
So Hendriks made sense and the Australian has had a good season with a 2.52 ERA/1.99 FIP entering the game, even if Gibbons has seemed reluctant to use him in high-leverage situations. Carlos Beltran hit a go-ahead home run, just the third Hendriks has allowed in 62 innings.
That allowed Joe Girardi to go to his rested one-two punch of Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller. Except Betances' recent control problems surfaced again. Kevin Pillar singled and was sacrificed to second. After Ben Revere struck out, walked Josh Donaldson on four straight breaking balls; didn't want to give him anything to hit. But then he walked Jose Bautista on five pitches, a couple of those way off the plate.
That brought up the red-hot Edwin Encarnacion. Betances fell behind him 2-0. Encarnacion took a 98.5 mph fastball down the middle. Then came what was maybe the most important pitch of the night: Betances challenged Encarnacion with another 98 mph fastball down the middle that Encarnacion simply swung through. He then waved weakly at the 2-2 slider that was way off the plate.
In the ninth, Bautista gunned down Chris Young at the plate for a tremendous 9-2 double play that wiped out a Yankees rally. In the bottom of the ninth, Dioner Navarro homered off Andrew Miller and the Jays loaded the bases with two outs for Donaldson. This could have been one of those MVP-clinching moments, but Miller threw a 96 mph fastball by him.
Lots of drama, with some questions left to ponder. Toronto's late-inning relief has been a little shaky of late, with Sanchez struggling and closer Roberto Osuna perhaps showing signs of some fatigue. For the Yankees, Betances has now walked nine batters in his past eight innings. His pitches are all over the place. Miller threw 42 pitches as he went two innings -- Encarnacion tagged him for a home run in the bottom of the 10th -- so his availability for Wednesday is probably limited to one inning.
I felt going into the series the Yankees had to win 2 of 3 to have a chance at the AL East. It will be Ivan Nova versus Marcus Stroman. Buckle up.
