Miguel Tejada will lay down a bunt for $6 million, but he won’t be happy about it

With the Giants trailing the Astros by one run in the 11th inning Sunday and a runner on first base Miguel Tejada was summoned off the bench to lay down a sacrifice bunt.

Tejada successfully advanced the runner to second base, but Aaron Rowand and Mike Fontenot stranded him, the Giants eventually lost 4-3, and yesterday Tejada explained that he was both surprised and unhappy to get the bunt sign:

I shook my head. I was thinking I was sent up to hit. After that, I did my job. I put the bunt down. I’m not the only guy who was surprised yesterday to see the bunt sign. I just work here. Whatever the manager tells me to do, I gotta do. I respect the manager and the team and my teammates. He tells me to do it, I’ll do it. If that’s the way I’m going to help the team, I’ll do it.

John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle notes that Tejada initially shook his head “no” several times when he saw the bunt sign from third-base coach Tim Flannery and “didn’t run hard to first.” Tejada indicated to reporters that leg soreness kept him from hustling on the play, but then said the injury was “nothing to worry about.”

Tejada also questioned why the manager didn’t send a pitcher to the plate to bunt, as if laying down a sacrifice in the 11th inning of a crucial late-season game should be off limits for a guy hitting .237 with a .268 on-base percentage and .324 slugging percentage. Just one more reason why signing Tejada to a $6 million deal was among the worst moves of the offseason.