Baseball is a silly game

OK, so not always. Calm down, seamheads.

Baseball is only a silly game when rationality bumps up against its benighted unwritten rules, in which case rational people can only shake their heads in wonder at the stream of nonsense that comes out of players' mouths.

("Unwritten rules," by the way, is a nonsense term in and of itself. If it's unwritten, it's not a rule. It's a contradiction in terms.)

Anyway ... so the other day, the Minnesota Twins were leading the Baltimore Orioles 7-0 with one out in the ninth inning when they decided to execute an infield shift. Why they did this when they had a 7-0 lead with one out in the ninth is an excellent question, which probably is why you shouldn't ask it. What you should ask is why the Twins got all wrathy when Orioles' catcher Chance Sisco, seeing an entire side of the field open, decided to bunt to that side of the field to get on base.

Apparently you don't do that, according to the unwritten rules. And, again, if you're asking "But what person of reasonable intelligence wouldn't bunt to the open side of the field in that situation, considering there were still two outs left in the game?", you're asking the wrong excellent question.

At any rate, the Twins were quite miffed that Sisco exploited a situation they created.

"I don't care if he's bunting. I just know it's not good for baseball in that situation. That's it," said Twins pitcher Jose Berrios.

Or, in normal, non-baseball English: "Dammit, we were up 7-0 in the ninth. They're supposed to give up in that situation. They're not supposed to be still trying to win. No fair."

Of course, they're saying this against the backdrop of last fall's World Series, when three or even four-run leads regularly disappeared in a single gulp. And they're saying it against the backdrop of subsequent events in that ninth inning the other day, when the O's actually loaded the bases after Sisco's bunt before eventually expiring.

Which means if they'd hit one out in that situation, they'd have been within three runs. And, again, going back to last fall's World Series, a three-run lead is nothing.

Still, it wasn't fair.

"I'm sure they'll address it and move forward," Twins second baseman Brian Dozier said.

"Address what?" you may be asking now.

Another wrong excellent question.