Three things we learned from the Red Sox' 8-6 loss to the Kansas City Royals on Sunday at Fenway Park:
1) Bunting (usually) makes no sense.
The Red Sox rank near the bottom in sacrifice bunts in the American League, but managed to lay down two and attempt another on Sunday in their loss to the Royals.
Interim manager Torey Lovullo said that two of those -- by Xander Bogaerts in the fourth and Jackie Bradley's failed attempt
in the ninth -- were done by the hitters.
The third, a sacrifice by Josh Rutledge in the seventh, was called from the dugout.
Bogaerts came to the plate in the sixth with Pablo Sandoval on second after a leadoff double. He successfully sacrificed Sandoval
to third, from where he scored on a sacrifice fly by David Ortiz.
"We allow our players to be creative,'' explained Lovullo. "We talk baseball with them all the time. I asked Xander, give me two reasons why he bunted. He ended up giving me three and they all made sense to me.''
Sorry, but there's little sense involved there. Yes, the Red Sox got the run home. But how do we know that a runner on second with no outs and the 3-4-5 hitters coming up wouldn't have led to a much bigger inning.
Bogaerts has been the Red Sox' best hitter this season. Moreover, he's second in the American League with runners in scoring position with a .375 average. If there's a player you DON'T want giving up an our in that situation, it's Bogaerts.
An inning later, with the potential tying run at second and no outs and No. 9 hitter utledge, a bunt made more sense and Lovullo
ordered this one. Rutledge got the bunt down and the baserunner -- Bradley - scored one out later on an infield single.
There are, indeed, times when a sacrifice makes sense. But for a team going nowhere, especially one in the American League, more times than not, bunting is counter-productive.
2) Jackie Bradley Jr. isn't just suddenly hitting -- he's hitting for power.
Bradley's batting average is up to a respectable .257 - in an admittedly relatively small sample size (101 at-bat). Nonetheless, that's encouraging, giving his struggles a year ago simply to make contact.
His strikeout rate is still higher than the Red Sox would like to see -- 26.3 percent, down somewhat from the 28.6 percent a year ago.
But more encouraging is the fact that Bradley is driving the ball, with a string of 11 consecutive extra-base hits (seven doubles, three homers and a triple) before Bradley singled in his final at-bat Sunday.
If Bradley is going to stake a claim to a regular outfield spot next season, there need to be some pop to his game.
Boston Red Sox
The Sox can have a very athletic outfield, one with three plus defenders, if Bradley joins Mookie Betts and Rusney Castillo. But they all can't be singles hitters; there needs to be some run production from each.
If Bradley can continue to make contact more regularly, he's strong enough to hit double figures in homers - he's got five in limiting playing time this season -- and knock in 70 or so runs.
He's shown the potential for some sock in past minor league seasons, hitting 10 in just 80 games at Pawtucket in 2013.
Of course, it's not all about hitting homers. If Bradley hits his share of doubles, he'll be contributing. And his slugging percentage of .535 suggest he's capable of driving the ball.
3) Pablo Sandoval has quietly had a better second half of the season.
Since the All-Star break, Sandoval's OPS is .734 -- more in line with his career mark of .799 -- and an improvement over his first-half figure of .691.
He's provide more pop with his bat in recent weeks, with 12 of his last 20 hits for extra-bases (three homers, nine doubles). Sandoval has at least one double in four of his last five games.
Beyond that, his defense has also shown improvement. Although he couldn't handle a bounced throw from Mookie Betts in the fourth inning, leading to a run, he made three standout plays in Sunday's loss.
Twice, Sandoval dived to his left to make plays on a hard-hit grounders. Another time, he made a fine backhand snare of a low liner.
Advanced fielding metrics reflect this trend. In the first half, Sandoval was a minus 12 in runs prevented. Since the All-Star break, he's been neutral, which is say, average.
Average defensive play isn't what the Red Sox thought they were getting when they signed Sanoval last winter. But his improvement at the plate and in the field in recent weeks suggests that perhaps, Sandoval has finally acclimated himself in Boston.
And while it seems as though Hanley Ramirez can't be salvaged, forcing the Red Sox to eat a huge amount of his contract to move him this winter, the situation isn't nearly as dire or hopeless with Sandoval.