Zach Remillard (of the Chicago White Sox) squares to bunt on a pitch from Dane Dunning (of the Texas Rangers)
The Batter Squares to Bunt
Most of the time, when a batter is actively trying to hit a pitch, they will do so by swinging at said pitch. But there’s another way for a batter to put the ball into play— by bunting. A bunt is where, instead of swinging, the batter brings their bat into an almost-horizontal position, slides their dominant hand up the bat, and taps at the ball instead of swinging. The point is to hit the ball softly, and send it into an area where no fielder will be able to get to it quickly. If everything comes together, the defense is caught sufficiently off-guard, the bunt goes to just the right spot, and if the batter is fast enough, they can get a base hit. There aren’t many players in baseball currently who can pull off bunting for a base hit very often, and you are more likely to see bunting performed not as a way of getting a base hit, but as a type of sacrifice, which we will discuss later on.
The act of coming set for a bunt is usually called “squaring” (or more specifically, “squaring to bunt,”)1. Some batters will start to square even before the pitch is thrown, but a batter trying to surprise the defense will square as the pitcher goes into motion. Either way, you will usually see infielders (usually the first and third basemen) charge the play, a process known as “crashing.”2 Even if a batter squares to bunt, they will need to make an attempt on the ball to actually bunt. This is like a swing; if the batter chooses not to attempt a bunt, it’s the same as not swinging, and the result is left up to the umpire.
Similarly, the results of a batter attempting to bunt are very close to what happens when they attempt to swing, with one major exception: a ball that is bunted foul is always a strike, no matter how many strikes there are in the count beforehand. (For more on this, check out the Fair/Foul Ball Explainer).