Quote:
Originally Posted by MathBandit
Stuff like sac bunts when you're down 1 in the bottom of the 9th come to mind as a way of playing for a draw.
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Yeah, it’s an ancient saying in baseball that you play to tie at home and win on the road. It’s conventional wisdom but like a lot of conventional wisdom it does have its roots in some fact: I think with baseball, in a vacuum expending your bullpen and your bench tires you out more on the road than at home. It probably meant more in the days of rail travel but if a game cuts out at 1am you’re still going to a hotel instead of your own home. Plus of course managers play to not get fired, and going against CW is a good way to get fired if you do it and lose.
In those situations, you might still play multi-run ball if you’re down by a run in the top of the 9th but on the bottom of the 9th in the same situation you’ll pretty much always do whatever you can to get the one run to tie it up.