In an era that doesn't favor bunting, White Sox rewrite narrative

CHICAGO -- Tristan Peters stood at the plate with one out in the 10th inning of Washington’s 2-1 victory over his White Sox on Sunday at Rate Field, representing the tying run at that point with Derek Hill on second.

On the first pitch from Paxton Schultz, Peters squared around and bunted through a 93.4 mph four-seam fastball. In the modern era of baseball, where bunting is frowned upon as an entity on offense, groans could be imagined from fans and pundits watching the game.

But the White Sox are doing whatever they possibly can to win. Sunday’s contest featured a first-pitch temperature of 55 degrees, and a wind making it not conducive for even a prolific home run squad such as the South Siders.

“Yeah, if there is an opportunity,” said White Sox manager Will Venable when questioned about the 10th-inning bunting, which also included Chase Meidroth trying to lay one down on the second pitch of his at-bat. “We’ve been talking about bunting as a weapon starting in Spring Training and how important that was going to be for guys in certain spots.

“Some more than others. But that’s got to be part of our game as we’re trying to find ways to score runs. As we see a bunch of zeros on the board, for guys to be able to recognize these opportunities means that they understand that the bunting can be a real weapon.”

Venable’s “some more than others” assessment is another key point in this equation. Munetaka Murakami, who has launched 11 home runs this season, probably won’t be called upon to bunt or think about the bunt for the entirety of this season. The same goes for power presences such as Colson Montgomery and Miguel Vargas.

For a player such as Peters, who hits the ball with authority but doesn’t quite have the same level of power as this trio, bunting fits into his personal tool chest. Peters has good speed and is an exceptional bat handler.

“You have a team with different skill sets,” Peters told MLB.com in an interview prior to Sunday’s series finale. “It’s the same as an infield single. It’s a very valuable thing, especially for a team like us, trying to get every inch we possibly can. It’s huge.

“I’ve worked on it a lot in the past years. Even in college. I know at Southern Illinois [University], I was working off a machine. I never really did it in a game much. Same in pro ball until this spring and this season.”

Game situations clearly come into play. The White Sox turned around their home opener victory against the Blue Jays when Hill laid down a perfect bunt that was fielded and thrown away by catcher Tyler Heineman. He had just entered the game due to an Alejandro Kirk injury.

Hitting coach Derek Shomon has been asked about bunting earlier this season, and he’s all in favor. He did present one addendum to the plan.

“Just as anything else, if we're going to do it, we have to practice it and we've done a really good job of that,” Shomon said. “Deno [Chris Denorfia], our field coordinator, has prioritized that with the guys and then the guys have shown up for that work. So 100 percent in favor of it. Like if we're going to value that tool just as anything else then we absolutely have to practice it.”

“It depends on the guy, for sure,” said Davis Martin, who starts Tuesday against the Angels. “There are some guys who are very talented at it. They have worked diligently to do it. Those guys are the challenging ones. It’s the ones who usually don’t bunt that are trying to bunt, that’s when I take it as a free out.”

Bryan Hudson pitched a perfect first as Sunday’s White Sox opener, and Sean Burke followed with scoreless baseball over the next 7 1/3 innings to go with four strikeouts and no walks. Foster Griffin was just as good, if not better, for the Nationals, fanning eight and giving up two hits in seven scoreless.

So, the goal on offense Sunday simply was to score one run to support these great mound efforts and then win the weekend series. Peters singled home a run after the failed bunt, while Meidroth struck out.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But for a White Sox team leading baseball with 22 bunt attempts and eight bunt hits entering Sunday, according to MLB.com research, it’s going to be an important part of their offense.