Green: Sox are sporting a new fall fashion

There’s an unexpected new trend in the Fens this fall: bunting. Bunting is usually favored by three kinds of teams: minor league, National League or Californian. Bunting teams are usually also fast teams. The Red Sox are hardly known for alacrity. But that may be changing.

Last year, of course, they added Coco Crisp. This spring, they included Julio Lugo — and say what you will about his hitting and defense, but he’s speedy on those basepaths. And in September, the most fleet-footed of them all, Jacoby Ellsbury, made it three. With those three playing regularly, bunting has become part of the team’s repertoire. Add bulk-rate-speed David Ortiz’s occasional feints — a bunt attempt here or there to keep teams honest when they’re employing a shift against him — and bunting is looking very hot for fall.

But if Terry Francona is going to call for more bunting, perhaps he should run a few more drills in this lost art. Last week, we saw Lugo called out for bunting in two straight games. First, he struck out as he attempted to bunt. Then, he tagged himself out by stumbling into the ball after dropping a bunt down the first-base line. Over the weekend, we watched Crisp lay down a textbook bunt to advance the runners, only for it to go to waste as one of those runners, Kevin Youkilis, jogged into the force out instead of sliding into the bag. Embarassing.

Despite these miscues, we’ve seen what speed on the basepaths can accomplish — dancing down the third-base line against the Orioles, Crisp was awarded the plate after his distracting antics caused a balk (and of course, he had reached first base on a bunt). Moreover, any pitcher who keeps throwing to first to keep Ellsbury or Lugo close to the bag isn’t fully concentrating on Big Papi at the plate. And speed is exhilarating, even addictive. Now, when Jacoby is playing, all I want to do is watch him run.

Alas, statisticians are not as sold on the merits of speed as fans are. Stolen bases are exciting, sure. And, as every good Sox fan knows, in certain situations a stolen base is essential (thank you, Dave Roberts). Speed is exciting to the fan, but overrated to the seamhead. While doubles are more valuable than singles, the reward of a stolen base or a sacrifice bunt is balanced by the cost of getting caught and making an out. This is especially true of high-scoring teams, such as the Boston Nine.

So while I’m enjoying the smallball, game-of-inches, doing-all-the-little-things style the Sox have been using this month, here’s hoping it won’t last very long. Because there’s no need for speed when you can do a home-run trot. Sure, bunting and running are making a comeback. But power never goes out of style.

Sarah Green is a freelance writer who can be reached at sgreen@gmail.com.