The difference between dinosaurs and bunts is that dinosaurs leave bones, proof of their existence. You can’t find evidence of bunts — the buntasaurus — on archeological digs.

Monday night, Yanks at the NL Nationals, thus pitchers batted. Yanks’ starter Sonny Gray, who appeared to have some hitting acumen — he’d lined out in the third — was up, man on first, no out, top of the fifth.

“National League brand, right here, Michael, pitcher bunting,” Al Leiter said to Michael Kay on YES.

“Ooo, we’re going to see a bunt!” Kay said sarcastically.

Leiter: “Let’s see if he can execute a sacrifice bunt. Exciting.”

Gray then bunted the first pitch foul.

MK: “What’s more exciting, Al, if this was at Yankee Stadium and Gleyber Torres would be up right now, or this bunt?”

AL: “It’s strategy, Michael.”

MK: [Sarcastically] “Oh, OK.”

AL: “You keep him in there. You want him to bunt. You can pinch hit.”

MK: “You know, despite the heat, I right now have goose bumps. … I get to see a guy bunt … And please, before you write me letters or tweet me, I understand the strategy aspect of it, but it’s quite a tradeoff for double switches, quite a tradeoff.

“The Yankees lost one of their best starters because he had to run the bases. Masahiro Tanaka.”

Tanaka injured both hamstrings while running home from third against the Mets, a demand for a 29-year-old, presumably well conditioned professional that, in 2018, is apparently cruel, beyond human concern.

With two strikes, Gray put down a good bunt, but the force was made at second. It was left at that.

Thus, Tanaka was hurt because he had to run the bases, as if he’d otherwise not have to run at all — and as if only pitchers risk injury running the bases — and pitchers who have to bunt, once an art worthy of mastering for all players, deprive the game of sluggers.

Furthermore, Tanaka was on third in the sixth. If Kay invites sarcasm, why was a starter still in that late in a The Game Has Changed game? Was Aaron Boone trying to wreck this guy’s arm and legs?

But perhaps Kay was correct for all the wrong reasons. Maybe baseball now should cater to diminished fundamental training and skills; allow it to further “grow” to an all-or-nothing enterprise. Throw and swing as hard as you can. Then list all the injuries, sponsored by a local hospital.

It’s the same way the NBA has headed with its reliance on 3-point bombs in place of smart, strategic, skilled, winning and, yes, exciting team basketball. Or were the Bob Cousy Celtics, Walt Frazier Knicks, Magic Johnson Lakers and Michael Jordan Bulls a redundant drag to watch?

And as long as Kay’s asking, what would he prefer to see? A good bunt to advance a runner as a matter of winning baseball — a valuable assist? Or a game loaded with batters striking out or grounding out into shifts rather than bunting against it for both a hit and as a deterrent against further shifts?

For the first time in MLB history, this season is tracking to include more strikeouts than hits. That tells us the game is less one of good coaching, preparation, thinking and execution than a Home Run Derby against 97 mph pitching.

But perhaps strike-three strolls back to the dugout are more exciting than a good bunt, though neither produce parroted graphics of exit velocities and launch angles.

And, of course, running to first base remains optional. One could be hurt.

Best-estimate Open score is quite a trick, Mick

Yes, Phil Mickelson was frustrated. Who doesn’t grow frustrated?

But what many still don’t get about his third-round on-the-run reverse putt is that while it was deemed a two-stroke penalty, such made it impossible to know what he would’ve made on that hole had he not swatted it back toward the cup before it could roll off the green.

His final score became a rough estimate, and that ain’t golf at any level. That made the $28,000 he won — he shot 69 the next day — a matter of fantasy. And that’s why, as a matter of dispassionate foresight and reality, he should have been disqualified or withdrawn. The USGA’s next-day catch-and-release decision, freeing Mickelson from his own hook by allowing him to continue, was a blunder.

To Mickelson, 28 grand may not be much. But in all, 16 players, mostly unknowns including those who sweat rent, finished tied with or behind him. But their scores were real, not a matter of maybe. See it now?

If a viewer relied on YES’ over-live-play make-believe strike-zone box for enlightenment during Thursday’s Mariners-Yanks on YES, he or she was left in the dark.

Pitches shown as strikes were balls, and vice versa, with little apparent complaint from pitchers, batters, managers.

In the seventh, two called-strike pitches to Seattle’s Mitch Haniger were clearly seen as well outside that box.

The second, called strike three, was explained by Paul O’Neill as the result of “it hitting the [catcher’s] glove as a strike” as it “came back in.” In that case, that distracting box, while irrelevant, is no less subjective or reliable than the ump.

Spree of fees obscene

Joe DiMaggio was known as the Yankee Clipper. Now?

Well, now that Stub Hub is a ticket broker partnered with the Yankees — the two used to be at war — a reader recently intended to purchase two tickets to a game via Stub Hub, $110 each, or $220, a lot of dough for so-so seats.

But the final price tag, with “Service Fees” and “Fulfillment Fees” — huh? — was $273.40 — $53.40 over face value. But since opening in 2009, new Yankee Stadium has been a clip joint.

Judging by the crowd shots seen on Fox, no well-comported soccer fans are attending this World Cup, just those dressed for excess and TV’s reliable attention.

Lookalikes: Reader Tony Walesiewicz submits Simon Bar Sinister from the old “Underdog” cartoon show, and Yankees fan Rudy Giuliani.

After Mets call-up Tim Peterson’s second consecutive impressive relief job, Thursday, SNY’s Gary Cohen said he’s likely now eligible for “high-leverage” appearances. Two questions: 1) How did Cohen broadcast for 20-something years before finally identifying for us “high-leverage” situations, and, 2) When do the Mets have “low-leverage” or even “medium-leverage” situations? If you allow five runs in the sixth there may not be any leverage left to leverage.