It seems like this should error out. Example:
> db.set.update({}, {$push : {a : {$each : [{"title" : "x", "rating" : 6}, {title:"y", "rating" : 3}, {title:"z", rating:10}]}}}, true) > db.set.update({}, {"$push" : {"a" : {"$sort" : {"a.rating" : 1}}}}) > db.set.find().pretty() { "_id" : ObjectId("512b8e6dae74c67969e404cc"), "a" : [ { "title" : "x", "rating" : 6 }, { "title" : "y", "rating" : 3 }, { "title" : "z", "rating" : 10 }, { "$sort" : { "a.rating" : 1 } } ] }