Truth on sacrifice flies

"As an aside, sacrifice flies don't count as a turn at bat and therefore don't negatively affect a hitter's batting average, but they're almost always just regular fly outs with the singular and fortunate (from the batter's perspective) distinction that a runner happened to be on third base (or second!) at the time. Occasionally a [...]

Manuel assigns blame

That's a huge percentage, because they sit in the middle of the order," Manuel said. "It puts pressure on the complementary pieces in the order. When you don't get that production there, and then the complementary pieces aren't living up to the expectations you have for them, it makes it tough. But you can get [...]