2014 Blue Jays are first team to complete two walkoff bunts in one season since the 2005 Twins

On Tuesday night, the Toronto Blue Jays had a walkoff win over the New York Yankees on a Melky Cabrera sacrifice bunt attempt. Jose Reyes reached on a double to start the inning, and Cabrera dropped a bunt towards the third base line in hopes of advancing the runner; however, a moment of hesitation over who would field the ball between pitcher Adam Warren and third baseman Yangervis Solarte led to a rushed throw by Solarte that sailed past first base.

This was actually the second time Toronto had walked off on a bunt attempt this season. Less than a month ago, Anthony Gose bunted to Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Juan Carlos Oviedo, who fielded it and threw low to first. Kevin Pillar scored all the way from first base on the play.

Bunt walkoffs are a fun, but rare, breed of baseball plays^{[citation needed]}, so it is pretty incredible to have a team have two of them in one season and probably even rarer to have a team do so before the halfway mark of the season.

Baseball-Reference's Play Index allows subscribers to look for specific incidents like a walkoff bunt in their Event Finder tool. That search revealed that there have been 37 walkoff bunts since 2001 (the list may be incomplete as a "bunt" event relies on the proper description of a play, which is less reliable than counted events like a single or a home run).

Data from Baseball-Reference. Click to see original tables [2001-2007, 2008-2014].

As you can see, the two that the Blue Jays had this year were their first two in this century; while the Milwaukee Brewers seem to be the King of Walkoff Bunts, recording eight of them since 2001. The 2004 Brewers completed two of them in one season, but the latest team to do it before the Blue Jays were the 2005 Twins. Interestingly, in all three cases, one of the walkoffs were ruled a single and the other a reached on error, and the two walkoffs occurred within a month of each other.

Thanks goes to @simon_shargot for asking the question, although this doesn't really answer it.

Unrelated #1

Colby Rasmus is the best.

Now, in front of Rogers Centre, chicken hot dogs are gonna sell like hot cakes.

Unrelated #2

You know how first base coaches always signal "safe" when a close play happens no matter if their team's runner is safe or not? Blue Jays first base coach Tim Leiper certainly didn't get that memo:

Hey Tim Leiper, when it's your player running to first, you shouldn't signal "OUT". https://t.co/Zci01j8viC

— Minor Leaguer (@Minor_Leaguer) June 25, 2014

Unrelated 3

The @BlueJays, reenacting the van scene from Inception (thanks to a foul liner). http://t.co/FXQcojPobrhttp://t.co/hJ2KxnIUDa

— Cut4 (@Cut4) June 25, 2014