Padres upset at Giants for breaking unwritten rule and bunting in blowout

The season is still young, but we have our first unwritten rule controversy. On Tuesday during a game between the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants, the Giants took the lead early, with a nine-run lead by the bottom of the second inning. They were not done scoring yet.

Fast forward to the bottom of the sixth inning: Mauricio Dubón hit a bunt single while the Giants still had a nine-run lead. The Padres were clearly not happy about the decision to bunt. San Diego manager Bob Melvin had some words for Dubón, as did Eric Hosmer. 

“I definitely told him how I felt, how we felt about it,” Hosmer said. “He said it was a sign given to him by their staff. I just told him I think you’ve got to be a little bit smarter in that situation. You’ve been playing professional ball for a good amount of time obviously if you’re at this level. You’ve got to be smarter than that.”

The Giants had a different opinion on the matter. Here’s what Giants manager Gabe Kapler said:

“Our goal is not exclusively to win one game in a series. It’s to try to win the entire series. Sometimes, that means trying to get a little deeper into the opposition’s ‘pen. I understand that many teams don’t love that strategy. And I get why. It’s something that we talked about as a club before the season and that we were comfortable going forward with that strategy. It’s not to be disrespectful in any way. It’s because we feel very cool and strategic. It’s the best way to win a series. When I say cool, I mean calm. We’re not emotional about it. We’re not trying to hurt anybody. 

Dubón also defended himself, saying, “I’m not trying to disrespect anybody. We’re just trying to win a series. That means carrying on rallies so we can burn arms. That’s it. I’m not trying to disrespect anybody.”

The Giants still scored four more runs after the bunt took place and went on to win, 13-2.

CBS Sports incorrectly stated that run differential is one of the tiebreakers MLB will use instead of a Game 163 in the 2022 season in the initial version of this story. Run differential was discussed as a tiebreaker, but that rule did not make it into the new CBA. The five tiebreakers MLB is using this season are head-to-head record, intradivision record, interdivision record, last half of Intraleague games, and last half of Intraleague games plus one until the tie is broken. We apologize for the error.