The Texas Rangers have put the lead-off man on in the bottom of the 9th-12th innings of their game against the Toronto Blue Jays, but they stranded the winning run in scoring position in each of those four innings.

In three of those four innings, Ron Washington called for a sacrifice bunt, which the sabermetric revolution has made a rather controversial tactic:

#smrtbaseball "@el_cassidy: @keithlaw elvis sac bunt in 9th & 11th. in related story they didnt score either time"

— keithlaw (@keithlaw) May 26, 2012

When Elvis Andrus sacrificed Ian Kinsler over to second in both innings, it gave the Blue Jays a free base to walk Josh Hamilton, which they used in the ninth but surprisingly did not the second time through.

Washington, as old-school a baseball man as they come, has never been shy of playing small-ball. In this case, not only did he sacrifice an out, but he also took the bat out of his best hitter's hands with the game on the line.