5/16 About that bunt …

When Starlin Castro squared to bunt in the eighth inning of a tie game on Monday, it was puzzling. Dale Sveum’s reasoning was that he was trying to stay out of a double play.

“You’re not going to ask certain people (to bunt) if they’re not capable of doing things,” Sveum told reporters in St. Louis on Tuesday. “But [Castro] is capable. He runs (well), so if it is a really good bunt he can beat it out. You can go on and on about the good and the bad of all of these things. The bottom line is I’m the one that makes the decisions. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t.”

Sveum said Castro is not a “prototypical” No. 3 hitter, so he could be asked to bunt again. There were two on and nobody out when Castro bunted, and unfortunately for the Cubs, he did hit into a double play.

“He’s a nice hitter, don’t get me wrong,” Sveum said of Castro. “But you’re going to be asked to bunt — you can do things. You can run. You can get a bunt down and guys screw it up. You see bunts screwed up as much as anything. You have pitchers involved in plays and you have things happen. You’re not just bunting sometimes to bunt.”

– Carrie Muskat