AGGRESSION IS SOX’ BREAD AND BUTTER
Forget outs because style will pay off in postseason
If you’ve been dismayed by the number of outs the Red Sox have made on the basepaths this season, I’m going to allow third base and baserunning coach Brian Butterfield to clear up a few matters and hopefully help turn those frowns upside-down.
He is the chief architect, planner and cheerleader for the Sox’ baserunning philosophy and strategy, and there is nothing willy-nilly about his aggressive style.
The team has not been perfect, but reckless outs hardly have been the only outcome.
The Sox’ aggressive running style also leads to runs, and runs lead to wins, and that, after all, is supposed to be the point.
So even though it is a fact that through Wednesday’s games, the Red Sox led the majors in base-running outs by a wide margin with 67 (which was 13 more than the next team, the AL-best Houston Astros), what’s also true is striving for that extra base to score that extra run is a strategy that helped them to the second-best record in the AL. And it’s one they will not discard. Not now. Certainly not before the playoffs begin because that’s when the payoff arrives.
“Through the years, there have been teams that have gone into the playoffs with power pitching — great pitching — and with the ability to hit the ball into the seats, but they’ve been a stationto-station baserunning club,” said Butterfield, standing near the first-base line before batting practice last week. “What normally happens in a playoff scenario when you have two outstanding pitching rotations opposing one another is that usually pitching, whether it’s early or late, is going to outdo the hitter. A lot of times, a good, strong-hitting lineup is negated a bit because of those power arms coming at you.
“Now, do you have any other way to beat us? Obviously we have to catch the ball without giving them any extra outs, we’ve got to be consistent and get 27 outs without kicking the ball around, that’s obvious. That’s part of pitchers having success, too. But if you’ve been a station-to-station team ... I’ve seen some teams in the league that have had the best record in baseball going into the playoffs and be quickly eliminated because they faced a solid pitching staff and they’ve got no other means to try and beat you in a short series.”
That’s why the Red Sox always are trying to gain that extra base.
It’s about crossing home plate by whatever means necessary. If the batter can’t make it happen, the baserunner can.
“We feel like we’re wellequipped because of the mindset that if the bats go south a little bit, which they will and they have — think about some of the streaks we’ve gone through 20, 30 innings where we’ve put up zeroes — you’ve got to have something else that allows you to push a couple
`I've seen more games lost by missed opportunities on the bases than more games lost by over-assertiveness.' — BRIAN BUTTERFIELD On Sox’ baserunning philosophy
more runs across,” Butterfield said. “It’s designed for the regular season, but it also can be effective for teams as they get into September and hopefully October.
“You look up at the scoreboard at the end of the night, and there are one- and two-run games all over the place. Those one or two runs, it could have been every game on a particular night that could have been determined by a guy’s ability or inability to go another 90 feet or another two bases. Maybe a missed opportunity where a guy could have gone first to third and he didn’t because he wasn’t engaged or he was afraid. So much that factors into it.”
If you ever find yourself nodding off at a game or your mind is wandering, I’d highly advise focusing your attention on Butterfield coaching third base. Nobody looks more intense or is more locked in on the action than Butterfield, who says he thinks “about baserunning 231⁄2 hours a day, just ask my wife.”
The Red Sox are young, they have speed and they have baserunners like rookie Andrew Benintendi who have run into more than their share of outs but are “enthusiastic about (the fact) we are trying to push the envelope,” according to Butterfield.
The Sox do not want to have to prod their runners. Those types seldom get better and will not last long with Butterfield around.
Notice each time Benintendi or any other baserunner is thrown out at second or third base, Butterfield is quick to rush over to him, calmly ask what he saw or was thinking and then offer a few reassuring or constructively critical comments, followed by a pat on the back and, “Keep it up.”
The viewer or fan sees the outs, but Butterfield and the coaches see something else, and they want others to see the big picture.
There are positives that have come from the aggressive baserunning style that for some reason do not get mentioned.
For instance, on a single, no other team in the league has scored or reached third base from first base more than the Red Sox.
Same with scoring from second base on a single.
Only one other team in the majors has been picked off fewer times than the Red Sox, and they are the second-best at taking an extra base on wild pitches, passed balls and fly balls.
So if there is a sound reason to run and 100 percent effort involved in a baserunning out, the Red Sox are fine with it. Obviously, mistakes happen. But even the most notable outs — like Eduardo nunez’ ill-fated, ninth-inning attempt to advance from second to third on a fly ball hit to cannon-armed Yankees left fielder aaron Hicks on the most recent road trip — aren’t really bottom-line a failure. They are not reckless. “We’re going to keep doing it,” Butterfield said. “People might not understand this much. This region is so great because the fans are so passionate, and I’m sure some of them are sitting there saying, `What’s going on?’ They can trust that we address things that if we feel like it might be ... even though we don’t use the term, I will use the term reckless . . . if we feel like it’s assertive, we talk to them and we talk to them calmly.
“For me, Eduardo Nunez tried to tag on one of the best arms in baseball in left field. I wanted to bring some people out to Yankee Stadium that were saying that was ridiculous. I wanted to stand them in left field to where he was standing, and I wanted them to look at third base. I don’t care if you’re Roberto Clemente, that’s a long ways away, and he has to execute perfectly. It took a cannon shot, an unbelievable pick and tag by (third baseman) Todd Frazier, and they had to take it to replay.
“(Yankees closer aroldis) Chapman had been having trouble throwing it over (the plate), that was the only thing, and we may have had an opportunity to do something else, but (Nunez) did it with conviction, and I loved his answer to the media: `That’s why were in first place, because we’re aggressive.’ I said, `Eddie, atta boy.’”
Butterfield watches replays of NESN games the morning after they are played, and he has noticed how the broadcasts have a habit of picking up on the negative rather than the big picture.
“People have a tendency to point out the outs that are made, and they forget to point out the opportunities that are missed,” Butterfield said. “I feel like through the years, watching baserunners, I’ve seen more games lost by missed opportunities on the bases than more games lost by over-assertiveness.”
He has an example in mind.
“It’s kind of like line play on defense, or not playing the lines,” he said. “Whenever you’re not guarding the line late in the game and the ball’s hit over the base, everybody comes up to you and says, `How come you guys weren’t guarding the line?’ And my answer always is, `I’ve seen way more games lost by being overcautious by guarding the line than not guarding the line.’
“It’s the same thing. Your pitchers are taught, `I don’t want this middle-of-the-lineup guy to beat me on the pull side, so I’m going to stay away from him.’ It was probably a poorly executed pitch that allowed that guy to hook a ball over the base. So long story short, we’re continually trying to push these guys into different ways that will make us a more complete ballclub to move up 90 feet, to move up two bases or just push the envelope to the point where even if we make outs, we know that there’s people in the stands writing stuff down for the next series saying, `Hey, when these guys come into town now, be ready because they’re not afraid of going first to third,’ so a lot of times that causes some angst as far as the defenders go.”
Butterfield understands that the speed of the game and random unpredictable events can undermine the best plan.
That does not mean the plan is wrong.
“There are times when I make bad sends, and I walk back to third base and I go, `Nope, that was a bad send,’ and there’s a slide at the plate with no outs, but I got lucky,” Butterfield said. “Then there are good sends where these great players execute everything perfectly and there’s a great tag at the plate, and I’ll walk back and say, `I’d do it again, nine out of nine times.’
“The bottom line is there are a lot people in this world who if it works, it’s fine. It could be a (expletive) plan or idea, but if it works, it’s fine. I’ve been on teams where if you’re doing stupid things on the field — offensively, defensively — and it’s working for a while and nothing is ever said about it because it worked. You know what? That’s going to rear its ugly head in a long season before it’s over. You try to stay the course and say `Outs are outs,’ then you try to say to the guy, `Do it again.’ If you think it was a good game plan and talking to the guy it was a good game plan, good thought process and you stayed assertive and you did it with conviction, do it again. Do it later on in the game, do it tomorrow. And that’s the way I feel coaching third base.
“I know when I’m right, I know when I’m wrong. There’s a lot of people yelling at me from behind and my brain’s going, `Nope, you’ve got me wrong. That’s a good one, you’re all wrong,’ and you just stay with that. And there’s time they’re yelling at me and I’m going, `You’re right. Stay on me, stay on me, that was stupid.’”
Stay on Butterfield and the Red Sox all you want for how they run the bases. Just don’t get stuck on the outs. They’re part of the winning package.