BOSTON - When both Pablo Sandoval and Blake Swihart laid down sacrifice bunts on their own on Monday, Torey Lovullo chalked them up to teaching moments.
There's a player, a time and a place to lay down a sacrifice bunt, and you wouldn't say any of those matched up as Sandoval and Swihart bunted in the early stages of the game.
Well, Lovullo has another teaching moment on his hands after Tuesday's 5-1 loss to the Blue Jays, a loss that may not have happened if Rusney Castillo wasn't thrown out trying to steal second base in the ninth inning of a tie game.
With Aaron Sanchez on the mound, David Ortiz worked a one-out walk and was then pinch-run for by Castillo.
Travis Shaw then worked a 3-1 count, but Castillo took off for second base on the fifth pitch and was thrown out by Jays catcher Russell Martin (WATCH), who came into the game second in the Majors having thrown out 29 attempted base-stealers, or 42.6-percent.
Just as Lovullo didn't instruct his two players to lay down sacrifice bunts on Monday, he didn't instruct Castillo to steal second base.
"It wasn't what we were looking for," Lovullo said. "In a vacuum, it didn't happen the right way. The timing of it didn't happen the right way."
A similar situation arose back in early July against the Astros when Mookie Betts made his own decision to try to steal third base. He was called out at third, and after the game John Farrell said it was "ill-advised and overaggressive" on Betts' part.
At the time, Betts, like Castillo, thought he found a "key" in the pitcher's release. They were both wrong.
"We do a lot of work behind the scenes to look for keys and tips on pitchers," Lovullo said, "and Arnie Beyeler works really hard on that. We thought we had a good key in that situation. Unfortunately it didn't work out."
Lovullo didn't want to throw Castillo under the bus, but after asking for clarification, he admitted Castillo made the decision on his own.
Shaw took a called strike two on Castillo's steal attempt before grounding out to second base to end the inning.
The Jays went on to score four runs in the 10th, and that was that.