In one swift act on Wednesday night, Jarrod Dyson proved why one of baseball’s unwritten rules is absurd.
Dyson laid down a beautiful bunt for a single during the sixth inning of Seattle’s game against Detroit on Wednesday, breaking up Justin Verlander’s perfect game. Ordinarily the unwritten rules say it’s bad form to break up a no-hitter or perfect game with a bunt hit, because that’s not considered as pure as recording a hit by swinging the bat.
Justin Verlander's perfect game broken up in the sixth by a Jarrod Dyson bunt. pic.twitter.com/oTHmmN48KY
— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) June 22, 2017
But what ensued after Dyson’s bunt hit quickly pushed the perfect game into a distant memory.
After Dyson bunted for the hit with one out in the sixth and the Tigers up 4-0, Mike Zunino walked, Jean Segura singled to load the bases, Ben Gamel hit an RBI single, and two batters later Nelson Cruz chased Verlander from the game with a 2-run double to make it 4-3.
A game that Verlander was perfect in through 5.1 innings turned into a 7-4 victory for Seattle. If Dyson followed baseball’s unwritten rules and not laid down the bunt, perhaps he would have made an out, and the Mariners never would have broken the game open.
Unwritten rules should never take precedence when a team is trying to win a game, as Dyson and the Mariners were doing.
