Overview
A sacrifice bunt is a tactic where the batter bunts to advance a runner while intentionally making an out. NPB heavily utilizes sacrifice bunts, with Masahiro Kawai holding the world record of 533 career sacrifices. Sabermetrics generally views sacrifice bunts negatively as they surrender an out, but in NPB they remain strongly supported as a symbol of 'connected baseball.' Sacrifice bunts by pitchers are generally considered rational.