August 7th, 2023 at 9:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka It was a blast from the past; one that put a smile on the face of every veteran (old) Dodgers fan watching Sunday’s 8-2 Dodgers win over the (distant) NL West fourth-place San Diego Padres at a very Dodger Blue Petco Park.
With one out in the top of the second inning and the Dodgers already up 2-0, and with Dodgers right fielder Kiké Hernández on third base and shortstop Miguel Rojas on first, 33-year-old Dodgers back-up catcher Austin Barnes laid down a perfect sacrifice (suicide squeeze) bunt towards first base, with Hernández breaking for home. The ball was barehanded by hard-charging Padres first baseman Ji Man Choi, who scoop-tossed it to Padres catcher Gary Sánchez, who was completely blocking the plate – a no-no per MLB rules.
Hernández was initially ruled out by veteran home plate umpire Gabe Morales, to which Dodgers manager Dave Roberts immediately challenged.
After a (very) brief review by replay officials in New York, the out call was rightly overturned and the run counted, with Rojas taking second and Barnes safe at first.
(ESPN)
Although the Dodgers would end up scoring four runs in the inning (three on a mammoth three-run home run by Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman), it was Hernández scoring on Barnes’ safety squeeze bunt that proved to be the game-winning run in the lopsided 8-2 final.
Because safety squeeze and suicide squeeze bunts are (relatively) rare in today’s swing-for-the-fences generation, there are undoubtedly some Dodgers (and baseball) fans who may be unfamiliar with the difference between the two. This is how MLB differentiates between them:
A safety squeeze is when the batter shows his bat earlier to safely get the bunt down, while a suicide squeeze is when the batter waits until the last second to try and catch the opposing team off-guard.
But regardless of the nomenclature, Roberts’ decision to go old-school was not only brilliant, but perfectly executed by Barnes and Hernández, and even Rojas, who would score moments later on Freeman’s home run.
It is little plays like this that still make baseball America’s Pastime.
Play Ball!
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Last week Barnes had a sacrifice bunt that led to a run. Roberts finding ways for Barnes to contribute offensively
Safety squeeze vs suicide squeeze has less to do with the batter and more to do with the runner. In a safety squeeze the runner is make a read on the bunt as opposed to a suicide squeeze where the runner is stealing home in anticipation of the batter being able to get the bunt down. When the batter shows bunt has nothing to do with it.
Got it straight from the BaseballBible website.
I believe that if the batter shows bunt early the base runner can safely return to base without being thrown out if the bunt isn’t successful. Hence “safety.”