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At Notre Dame Stadium, there is a narrow stairway that leads from the home teams locker room to the football field. As players come down the stairwell, each is reminded by a sign hanging overhead to Play Like A Champion Today. To reinforce the message, every Notre Dame player touches the sign.I suspect even the legions of fans who root, often intensely, against Notre Dame, would have to admit that the sign, a last reminder prior to competition, is one of the most iconic motivational symbols in sports.If I owned a Major League Baseball team or were appointed general manager of one, I too would hang a motivational sign. Each game, the manager would see it on the way to the dugout and be reminded of an overriding philosophy, to cast aside infrequently and only after great deliberation. It would read:DONT JUST DO SOMETHING -- STAND THERE!During MLBs Sunday Night Baseball showcase, Royals manager Ned Yost put his inability to simply sit still on full display, until finally his hands were tied.First, lets set the stage for Kansas City: Beat the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, and the Royals are three games behind Baltimore for the second wild-card spot and just four games behind Boston for the first one. Lose, and not only do those numbers move to four games and six games, respectively, but the Royals fall behind three other teams in the wild-card race. A team in seventh place in the standings instead of tied for fourth, with 42 games left in the season, has entered the perilous its not the distance, its the traffic phase of chasing. Its clearly not a win-or-go-home situation, but its a very important game for the defending World Series champions. In such a situation, no chances to win the game should be squandered.In the top of the second inning of a scoreless game, Salvador Perez got the visitors on the scoreboard with a lead-off solo home run, followed by a single by Alex Gordon and a walk to Alcides Escobar. That brought Raul Mondesi to the plate, who perhaps is best known for making his major league debut during the 2015 World Series. Yost predictably ordered Mondesi to bunt, and he did, successfully advancing Gordon and Escobar.It was a terrible decision, even noting that Gordon subsequently scored from third when Paulo Orlando hit a sacrifice fly to center. A run expectancy chart and its derivative, a win expectancy chart, can display mathematically why it was the wrong decision, but relying on those cheat sheets, like a first-time blackjack player, vastly underestimates how poor the decision was. Expectancy charts are based on baseline, league-average situations, but this was not a baseline situation. The Royals were playing the highest-scoring team in the majors, in the American Leagues highest-scoring run environment over the last three seasons. You cannot construct a situation in the American League in which a single run has less marginal value for winning a game than what the Royals faced Sunday night.With 24 outs to go in the game, and two pitchers in the game with 2016 ERAs of 4.27 and 5.11 on the mound, bunting with a runner on first and second and nobody out is foolish.Yost couldnt contain himself, and clearly felt like he had to do something. Perhaps he thought Mondesi, as a rookie, couldnt handle the pressure of the situation, or that with his blazing speed, he might beat out the sacrifice, or that as a struggling .184 hitter entering the game, Mondesi had to be treated like a pitcher.Every one of those thoughts should have been suppressed, because they all lead to justifications for the wrong answer. Either Mondesi is a professional baseball player, or hes not. If his true talent level is that of a sub-Mendoza Line hitter, then the Royals are guilty of terrible lineup construction for a crucial game, and that falls on the manager as well (and perhaps the front office). Further, the primary reason its proper to sacrifice pitchers isnt because they have poor batting averages or because they strike out a lot, its because they are a huge threat to ground into a double play. Thats the downside of swinging away with runners on first and second and nobody out. Mondesi has blazing speed. In 101 career plate appearances, hes grounded into one double play. (A deep dive into the invaluable Baseball-Reference.com reveals that Mondesi has batted with a runner on first and fewer than two outs 22 times. His double play rate of 4.6 percent in that situation is way below the 2016 league average of 11.1 percent.)Yost treated Mondesi like a pitcher -- essentially yielding the DH advantage to the team with the best DH in baseball -- all due to his urge to do something, and theres nothing to indicate he wouldnt make the same sub-standard decision again -- unless, of course, his hands were tied. Four innings later, thats exactly what happened.With one out in the top of the sixth, and the Red Sox now leading 4-3 (remember the comment about the games run environment?), Mondesi came to the plate again in a high-leverage situation, only this time there was nothing Yost could do to take the bat out his young second basemans hands. The bases were loaded. Some crazy suicide squeeze thought may have crossed Yosts mind, but if so, it was thankfully subdued, because Mondesi swung away and promptly crushed a triple to the deepest part of the park.Any contrived narrative that Yost, or his supporters of the decision to bunt Mondesi in the second inning, relied on was disproven two Mondesi at-bats later. Based on the coverage of beat writers and reporters who are very well connected to the game, Yost gets high marks for his ability to lead a clubhouse and earn the respect of his players. That attribute should never be understated, as anyone, sabermetrically inclined or not, who has participated in the work force should acknowledge. Hes often referred to as a players manager.That may be the case, but once a game begins, a true players manager would be a manager who puts his players in the best position to succeed; as exemplified by his handling of Mondesi on Sunday night, Yost falls short of that standard. He may be the perfect man to lead his team into a game, but in lieu of installing the STAND THERE! sign in his office, once the game starts, the Royals would be best served to tie him to the bench and let the game play out. Kansas Citys eight-run sixth inning Sunday night served as a perfect example of whats possible when the skippers hands are tied. Cheap Air Max 1 China . -- Ryan Getzlaf grabbed the three pucks wrapped in tape and held them up to his chest in the Anaheim Ducks dressing room for a celebration nine seasons in the making. Cheap Air Max 1 Mens . The All-Pro lineman got the leg bent under him while trying to make a tackle during the first half of a 22-20 overtime loss at Miami on Thursday night. The medical staff initially thought hed torn the ligament, and the test a day later in Cincinnati confirmed it. http://www.cheapairmax1.net/ . 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DETROIT -- Matt Boyd was pulled before he retired a single batter, and the Detroit Tigers spent the rest of the game trying to find anyone who could keep the Kansas City bats quiet.No luck.Boyd allowed five hits and four runs before being taken out, and the Tigers went on to lose 12-9 to the Royals on Sunday, falling 1 1/2 games behind Baltimore in the race for the American Leagues second wild card. Victor Martinez hit a grand slam for Detroit, but the Tigers were already in a substantial hole by that point.In a game like this, you are hoping to get a big hit to get back into the game, and we got several of those, manager Brad Ausmus said. It just wasnt enough to overcome runs, and frankly, you are almost never going to overcome 12 runs.Kansas City started the game with a single by Billy Burns, a triple by Merrifield and a double by Kendrys Morales before Salvador Perezs two-run homer made it 4-0. It was the first time the Royals first four hitters combined for a cycle since Sept. 30, 2006, also at Detroit.Boyd (6-5) lasted only one more hitter after Perezs homer, giving up another hit before being pulled. The Tigers loss cut Clevelands magic number to clinch the AL Central to one -- the Indians start a four-game series in Detroit on Monday night.Boyd said he understood 100 percent why he was taken out so quickly.I might have been able to work myself through it, but the margin of error is zero right now, he said. Every run is important right now and so is every game.The Royals led 7-0 after Cheslor Cuthbert and Raul Mondesi hit consecutive homers in the third.Dillon Gee (8-9) got the win in relief, and Wade Davis pitched the ninth for his 26th save in 29 chances. Miguel Cabrera came up as the tying run but lined out to shallow left field to end it.Plate umpire Dan Iassogna ejected Cameron Maybin from the Detroit dugout during that final at-bat.Martinez hit a grand slam in the third to make it 7-4, aand the Tigers loaded the bases again that inning, chasing starter Edinson Volquez in the process.dddddddddddd But Andrew Romines bunt attempt with two outs was fielded easily by reliever Peter Moylan, and the force at home ended the inning.Detroit tried several former starters in long relief -- Anibal Sanchez, Shane Greene and Mike Pelfrey all pitched -- in an attempt to keep the game close, but the Royals kept adding runs. Alex Gordons two-run homer in the sixth made it 11-5.Kansas City let the Tigers creep back into it by the end. Justin Upton hit a solo homer in the seventh, and Detroit also scored two runs on wild pitches, the second of which made it 11-9 in the eighth.The Royals held on, though, to avoid being mathematically eliminated from the postseason chase.Maybin had four hits for the Tigers.VERSATILEKansas Citys Whit Merrifield played first base for the first time this season. Hes also played second, third, left field and right field.Its always fun to switch up the angles for me, see the ball from a different perspective, he said. I got a couple balls. I didnt get to pick one.MARATHONSThe 3-hour, 51-minute game was Detroits longest nine-inning contest of the season. The Tigers played 3:50 against the Royals on Saturday.TRAINERS ROOMTigers: RHP Jordan Zimmermann, who has been dropped from the rotation as he struggles to come back from neck problems, pitched for the first time since Sept. 10. He pitched the last three innings in relief, allowing one run and four hits.UP NEXTRoyals: After an off day Monday, Kansas City starts RHP Ian Kennedy (11-10) against Minnesota RHP Jose Berrios (2-7) on Tuesday night.Tigers: Detroit sends RHP Buck Farmer (0-0) to the mound Monday against Cleveland RHP Corey Kluber (18-9).---Follow Noah Trister at www.Twitter.com/noahtrister ' ' '