It’s the top of the 12th inning. You’re deadlocked at five runs. Your opponent, the Milwaukee Brewers, brings in a left-handed pitcher, starter-turned-reliever Manny Parra, known for his decent stuff and lack of control. You have the heart of your batting order due up.

Today’s No. 3 hitter, Andrew McCutchen, is up first—the ideal situation. McCutchen singles. Your cleanup hitter, Garrett Jones, isn’t known for his performance against southpaws. Still, he drops a liner into center field, pushing McCutchen to second. Two on, none out.

Lastings Milledge comes to the plate. You need one run to take the lead, but given your team’s recent pitching performances, it wouldn’t hurt to open the floodgates.

What’s the call?

Milledge went 3 for 5 with one home run against Manny Parra in 2009. In his career, his OPS is 45 points better against left-handed pitching than it is against righties. Your man on-deck, Jeff Clement, has done well in this game and in the series, but his performance on the season as a whole is lacking, and he struggles against lefties.

But if you’re John Russell, you want to bunt.

The absolute best-case scenario has you trading an out and moving two runners up 90 feet. Then, you have a left-on-left duel, needing a fly ball to plate one or a single to plate two. If Clement doesn’t get the ball out of the infield, you have runners on second and third with two out. Ryan Doumit then gets intentionally walked, and you have your pitcher batting—the bench has already been emptied.

The worst-case scenario is what actually occurred. Milledge bunts into a double play, popping out to catcher Greg Zaun, who fires to second to catch McCutchen in no man’s land. Two out, runner on first, rally successfully killed.

The alternative is to let your No. 5 hitter swing away. He’s not slow, and so the risk of grounding into a double play isn’t significant. If he makes an out, the runners may move up, accomplishing your original goal. If it isn’t a productive out, you still have Clement coming up with a runner in scoring position. And to top it all off, the National League’s stolen base leader is on second with a guy who’s 13 for 16 in steals in his career trailing him at first. If need be, you can try to swipe the base anyway.

Of course, there’s always the chance that Milledge does what McCutchen and Jones did before him—and that’s get a hit. Maybe he even draws a walk. But he didn’t have the opportunity to do either in the 12th. The manager took the bat out of his hands.

The Pirates won today, but John Russell’s decision to sacrifice cost them a scoring opportunity late. Luckily, the bullpen held strong and Jones delivered the game-winning RBI in his next plate appearance.