Something interesting happened in the 9th inning of the Brewers 3-2 loss at the hands of the Cardinals on Wednesday, but it wasn't nearly as interesting as the explanation that came after the game. As you probably remember, Mat Gamel opened the 9th with a walk from Cards closer Ryan Franklin. At this point, most were expecting Jody Gerut to bunt to move Gamel to second.  Gerut was pinch hitting for the pitcher's spot in the 8th hole. Instead, Gerut swung away and was quickly retired when he popped up. After Mike Rivera hit what should have been a double play ball, but ended up being only one out at second, Craig Counsell singled, putting two on and leaving the impression that, had Gerut successfully bunted, the game would probably be tied. Of course that isn't certain, because no one can say how Franklin and Counsell would have proceeded differently with a runner in scoring position. JJ Hardy ended the threat by grounding sharply to short which ended the game and sent the Brewers to their 5th loss in 7 games.

While it certainly wasn't something every manager would do, bunting the runner is something of a standard move for a team at home trying to at least tie the game. As you might expect, Manager Ken Macha was asked after the game why he didn't bunt by the writers on hand. Macha's response to the question was such, as per Tom Haudricourt:

When I asked Macha why he didn't bunt with Gerut, he made it seem as if he didn't think Gerut could get a bunt down. A bit strange, and more than a bit disappointing for a newly acquired backup outfielder.

"In my assessment of watching Jody out there (in batting practice), I felt more comfortable with him swinging the bat there."

Gerut is 1 for 6 since being acquired from San Diego last week. Asked if he thought Gerut was swinging the bat well enough to forego a bunt, Macha said, "It's not the swinging part. I'm not sure (about his bunting)."

On the surface, this is at least somewhat plausible. Macha may not have been comfortable with Gerut's ability to bunt, for all we know. The problem is that Gerut was his choice to come into the game at that time. He could have turned to Corey Hart or Bill Hall, both of whom have gotten down bunts in big situations in the past for this team. He could have also chosen any one of his starting pitchers who didn't start that day. Braden Looper, Dave Bush and Jeff Suppan are all experienced bunters. If Macha really did want to bunt in that situation and wasn't comfortable with Gerut, he certainly could have found someone else to do so.

Thus, it is fairly clear that Macha didn't really want to bunt there. It is a defensible move on several fronts. Gerut does possess good power, with 18 HR in his last two seasons in the majors covering less than 500 AB's. Giving up the out there does decrease your chances of scoring more than one run while barely increasing the chance of scoring one, at least in the most basic sense. There are lots of reasons Macha could have given for not bunting there, ultimately.

Instead, he chose to throw his perception that Gerut can't bunt out there for public consumption as the reason for his doing what he did. Now, this is thus far sort of an isolated incident. There was talk, however, that his tenure in Oakland ended in large part due to the fact that he couldn't get along with players. It's easy to see how Gerut, who wasn't even given the chance in the game to prove Macha wrong here, might take this as a slap in the face. Hopefully it will remain an isolated sort of incident, but it's hard to find a reasonable conclusion to draw here other than the press came to Macha to justify his decision and he chose instead to lay it at the feet of a player.