The Indians attempted to sacrifice bunt 46 times in 2018. In some cases, the player that attempted the bunt successfully sacrificed the runner over. You shouldn’t celebrate these too much; sacrifice bunts — including those that resulted in an error or a single — still cost the Indians 5.45 runs according to RE24 in 2018. They were worth -.81 WPA. No traditional sacrifice bunts increased the Indians’ chances of winning per WPA.
What I plan to examine today are the times that Indians players squared up a sacrifice and blew it, ranked in ascending order of shame the hitter likely felt when leaving the batter’s box.