ALDS: The lost art of the bunt

It always amazes me when big-league players are called on to bunt, and they're clueless about it.

Now I never had a 95 mph fastball coming at me, but everybody on my little league team knew how to bunt. When I was 11, I went to camp to learn how to do it, and became pretty good at it. But some major-leaguers today perform like have no clue because it's seemingly disappeared from the game in this age of power, especially in the American League.

And the Los Angeles Angels are left to ponder the whole offseason because of it. In the top of the ninth inning on Tuesday in a tie game, Kendry Morales hit a double, and pinch runner Reggie Willits advanced to third on a decent bunt by Howie Kendrick. Up next was Erick Aybar, and with a 2-0 count - a pitch when it's likely to get a fastball over the plate - Angels manager Mike Scioscia called for one of the most dramatic plays in baseball, the suicide squeeze play.

"I thought it was a good situation for us with the guy at third base, with the guy at the plate and the count we had," Scioscia told MLB.com. "And it didn't work out."

Aybar got a decent pitch to bunt from reliever Manny Delcarmen, a fastball at the knees on the inside part of the plate. But Aybar missed, totally, committing the sin of trying to bunt the ball downward instead of just making sure he made contact. Willits was run down by Boston catcher Jason Varitek and the rally was squelched.

The irony is that Aybar does know how to bunt. He had nine bunt singles this year, which isn't bad considering he missed almost 60 games to injury. But with the pressure on and only needing to make contact, he whiffed.

And, of course, the Red Sox got a two-out single in the ninth by rookie Jed Lowrie, winning 3-2, and the Red Sox are headed to the American League Championship Series again.

They'll take on the Tampa Bay Rays - who eliminated the White Sox 6-2, as B.J. Upton hit two homers - in an ALCS that should be fun to watch. The Red Sox have the experience; the Rays have the home-field advantage. A big subplot will be the fact that these two teams pretty much hate each other. They had a bench-clearing brawl in June at Fenway.

It will be the fifth all-AL East ALCS, but the first not involving the Yankees. The Red Sox took on the Yankees in three of them (1999, 2003 and 2004), and the Orioles played the Yankees way back in 1996.

Full playoff schedules and more in Playoff Central.