GIF: Jim Johnson makes bunts work (by throwing balls away)

Bunting is usually a net negative in terms of value added. Old-school baseball types live by the small ball approach, but mathematically they make little sense.

Late in a tight game, the argument can be made for laying down a sacrifice. Moving a runner from first to second at the expense of an out, the most scarce resource a team has, still isn't a gain in terms of win probability, though.

But with Brendan Ryan on first -- he's fast enough to score from second on a single -- and nobody out in the ninth inning of a tie game, with Chris Stewart and his .288 OBP at the dish, the case can be made. So Stewart laid a bunt down to move Ryan to second for Curtis Granderson to bring home.

And hey, it worked, thanks to Jim Johnson:

Well, yeah, of course a bunt is going to work if the ball gets airmailed into center. (Note, however, that if the throw was online the Yankees would have just wasted an out.)

The Yankees then doubled down by having Granderson bunt both runners over. And that worked out because Jim Johnson uncorked a wild pitch, scoring Ryan and giving the Yankees a 6-5 lead.

Results over process, I suppose.

Courtesy: MASN