A couple of 7th inning musings while watching Los Angeles de Los Angeles and the Yankees on ESPN:

-Here’s the situation: runners on the corners, nobody out. Juan Rivera hit a sharp grounder to A-Rod at third, and Garrett Anderson broke for second. A-Rod looked Jose Molina back to third, then made a throw to second, where Robinson Cano jumped off the bag before the ball arrived to avoid contact. Quick summary: Garrett Anderson slides into second; Robinson Cano catches a throw while not standing on the bag and not trying to turn a double play and not straddling the bag. According to the rule book (and every reasonable interpretation), Anderson is safe at second. Joe Morgan, though, insisted FOUR separate times through the inning that he thinks Anderson should have been called out. WHY? As a longtime Major League second baseman and a successful former manager, I assumed that he had a working interpretation of the rules. He disproved that theory today, infuriating me in the process. His justification is that he was trying to avoid getting hurt, which seems to be part of the game. If a catcher gets the ball from an outfielder, blocks the plate with the ball before the runner gets there, then runs away before the runner came home to avoid injury, the runner is safe. How is this situation any different? Position on the diamond and that is all. Needless to say, my TV has been on mute for the last couple of innings.

-I did keep the sound on long enough to hear Miller and Morgan laud Mike Scioscia for running a one out squeeze play with the bases loaded later in the evening. Miller pointed out that Earl Weaver would have said, “Play for one run, score one run,” to which Morgan responded, “Well, I’ll take one run over zero.” Uggghhhhh.

Misguided as his rationale may be, I’ll admit that Morgan is actually right in this situation. Even though one run isn’t as valuable in an 8-6 game in the 7th as it would be in a pitchers’ duel, it actually worked out statistically in this situation. My initial reaction was that it was probably a bad idea, despite Erstad’s batting problems. But judging by the expected runs matrix, a bases-loaded, one out situation would be expected to yield 1.529 runs, while a second and third, two outs situation yields .607 runs, with one already scored. If Scioscia is confident that Erstad will convert the squeeze, it adds a full run of probability, making it a better idea by a razor-thin margin. The problem is that it’s not 100% likely that he’ll convert the bunt. Here, though, congratulations Erstad.