PITTSBURGH – Shogo Akiyama wasn’t surprised when third-base coach J.R. House told him to attempt a sacrifice bunt in the seventh inning Thursday.
The Cincinnati Reds had two runners on base and no outs in the seventh inning of a tie game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. After dropping the first two games of the three-game series, it felt like a must-win game.
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“If I did have numbers similar to my stats in Japan, I think I would have been led to hit obviously in that situation,” Akiyama said, according to interpreter Luke Shinoda.