THEY’RE OFF BASE AGAIN

Sox try to stress thinking

The Red Sox might be too fast for their own good. If they don’t slow down, they’re going to run themselves out of contention.

They’ve developed a reputation as a team that will run itself into losses from time to time. They set a 14year record with 81 outs on the bases in 2017, and they’ve got a chance at breaking that this year.

“I’ve heard,” said Tom Goodwin, the first base coach who is also in charge of the team’s baserunning. “Oh I’ve heard, trust me. I was hoping we wouldn’t get that high, but it looks like we might break that record.”

Goodwin spent the last six seasons in the same job with the New York Mets. In those six years, the Mets made just 270 outs on the bases, an average of 45 per season and fewer than every team but Baltimore’s 267.

Now he has to figure out how to curtail the Red Sox’ self-inflicted wounds. This has been tricky.

To Goodwin, it’s all about mentality. The Red Sox have a lot of young players with good speed. Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Andrew Benintendi, Xander Bogaerts and Brock Holt all have above-average speed with the ability to swipe bases. Eduardo Nunez, Blake Swihart and Hanley Ramirez are at least average.

“That’s what you get when you have a team that can run,” Goodwin said. “You’re going to get guys that are overaggressive and sometimes they’re going to run into some outs. That’s really what we try to preach. Without taking their aggressiveness away, you just try to get them to do a little more thinking out there on the bases as far as, ‘Is this a good time for me to take that chance?’

“There are times we don’t need to be as aggressive, where that 90 feet is not worth the risk and reward.”

But all that speed lends itself to confidence. Perhaps too much confidence.

On Tuesday, an out on the bases might’ve cost the Red Sox the game. It was an illadvised play for Benintendi to round third as aggressively as he did, taking a turn for home while a slow grounder was rolling toward the third baseman in the first inning.

The play started with men on first and second and two outs. The ball was hit softly enough to make it difficult for Oakland’s Matt Chapman to throw Bogaerts out at first base. Had Benintendi just ran to third and stopped, the bases would’ve been loaded for Mitch Moreland, who has reached safely all four times he’s been up with the bases loaded this year, including a grand slam.

Instead, Chapman was able to field the grounder, notice Benintendi off the bag and tag him for the final out of the inning.

The Red Sox runs.

“I’m just looking for answers,” manager Alex Cora said afterward. “He’s anticipating the play, it’s a slow roller, an average runner, there’s not going to be a play at first. I don’t know if he thought Chapman was going to throw on the run to first, but you’ve just got to be lost by two careful, you’ve got to be smart in that situation. (It could have been) bases loaded, two outs. I don’t think there’s a chance to score on that play.

“We’ll go back and talk to them and keep working. I’ve been saying this every night. That’s not good. But hopefully they get it and they’ll understand there’s a value of outs and it’s very important. We’ll keep preaching that.”

With their 22 outs on the bases through Friday, the Red Sox were on pace for 78 for the season. Prior to their disastrous effort last year, no team had made 80 outs on the bases since the 2004 Angels, a team that won 90 games, but lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Red Sox.

A look at the last 30 years of aggressive/poor baserunning reveals a similar pattern: Teams that run into outs are not serious contenders. Not since the 1987 Cardinals has a team that made at least 80 outs on the bases during the regular season won a playoff series.

In the last 20 years, nine of the 10 teams to make 80 outs on the bases were fast enough to steal 100-plus bags. Their average win total was 86. But again, none of them won a playoff series.

The Red Sox know it’s a problem, but they aren’t sure what to do about it.

“You just keep preaching it,” Goodwin said. “You’re not going to go out here and run the bases (before the game) or do anything like that. You just keep preaching it. Sooner or later, experiences usually have to happen where you have to

go through that, fail at it a little bit before it finally sinks in and you say, ‘OK, this is not the time to do or this is the time to do it.’ ”

Goodwin said he’s yet to call groups of players in for a meeting to talk about it.

“When you’re in the heat of the battle, all that stuff goes out the window,” he said. “You’re using your instincts now. And that’s one of the things that’s gotten these guys to where they are now, because they have good instincts. Whether

it be hand-eye coordination or reacting to things that happen on the field, you can’t take that away from them because they aren’t going to be the player you want them to be.”

In theory, it makes sense. Major leaguers are overloaded with information as it is. Too much of it, and they can get in their own heads. The Red Sox want their guys to play free, which is seen as one reason why they got off to a hot start this year. They were comfortable.

But if the Red Sox aren’t more careful, they’re going to end up like every other overaggressive team in the last 30 years: On the couch, watching the World Series from home.

“Alex tells the guys, ‘Hey, you might think the extra 90 feet is doing us a big deal, but it’s not moving the scale like this (big margin), it’s moving it like this (negligible margin),” Goodwin said.

Split’s becoming it

Last Sunday, Matt Barnes threw a pitch mix that could not have been on the scouting report for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Five splitters?

Barnes had never thrown more than two splitters in a game before. And until this year, he’d never thrown a single splitter in a major league game.

As the Red Sox look to settle on roles in a thin bullpen that badly needs to replace Carson Smith (self-inflicted shoulder subluxation), Barnes and Joe Kelly have stepped up as the two most trusted late-game relievers ahead of Craig Kimbrel.

Barnes’ new pitch is looking like a big reason why.

“I messed around with it and threw it a little bit in college (at UConn) until I got a blister on my finger and stopped,” Barnes said. “In 2016, I messed around with it in the middle of the season, but didn’t have any time to throw it to hitters in a game because we were in a pennant race and I didn’t want to mess with that. I said I was going to do it going into last year, but I never did it and just kept with the slider/cutter. Finally after last year, I decided I was going to throw it in spring training and see what I had.

“It definitely takes time. It’s just an easy pitch for me to throw. Just throw it and don’t have to be fine with it. I threw it twice to Gary Sanchez earlier in the year when we were at Fenway. I threw it in Texas a few times. It’s a pitch that’s coming along and gaining more trust with it.”

Usually armed with a high90s fastball, a slider/cutter and a curveball, Barnes figured he could use another pitch that adds more deception without looping as big as his curve.

Through Friday, Barnes was having his best career season with a 2.89 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 182⁄3 innings.

The only problem? The 12 walks. Barnes too often walks the leadoff batter when he enters the game, setting himself up to walk a tightrope in the late innings.

But Barnes, who turns 28 in June and has four years of relief experience at the big league level, says he’s not concerned.

“There are certain situations where walking a guy is fine because I know who is coming up,” Barnes said. “That’s part of it a lot of the time. And there are times I’m walking a guy and I’m not intentionally trying to pitch around him, but in a situation like in New York where Neil Walker was on third base and I had Gleyber Torres up, people might get on me for walking that guy, but I was intentionally trying to get him to chase stuff. Every pitch I threw was planned to be there. People may not see that because they have no idea what my game plan on the mound is or what I’m trying to do.

“A lot of time when I fall behind a guy, there’s a game plan. I know who is coming on deck and how my stuff matches up against the next two or three hitters. I know I can attack certain guys and go for the strikeout.”

Only sometimes does Barnes get annoyed with himself.

“Some of it is definitely frustrating, but it’s the frustration of not getting ahead of a guy, as opposed to walking a guy because I’m being smart and being careful,” he said. “Because walking a guy and putting him on first base is much better than a guy hitting a ball in the gap and now you’ve got a guy on second with nobody out in a one-run game. I’d rather have a guy on first base who I can go get a punchout or get a double play.”

Mesmerizing Martinez

Entering the weekend, J.D. Martinez led all big league hitters with 44 homers and 110 RBI since the 2017 All-Star break.

What’s it like to hit behind the hottest hitter in the majors?

“It’s pretty impressive what he does with me behind him, looking at him,” Bogaerts said. “I have to be ready. Normally I’m a guy that gets to the on-deck circle a little bit later. With J.D., I have to get there early because he swings at the first pitch and gets a hit. I have to be there earlier and get my stuff going so I can hit. There was a streak he was just swinging at first pitch and hitting hits and bombs. It’s pretty amazing.”

Martinez had 13 homers in his first 43 games with the Red Sox. He also struck out 48 times.

“I strike out a lot still,” Martinez said. “That’s kind of the new wave of baseball. The new wave of general managers and how they target pitchers and how they target players nowadays. The game is kind of repetitive and everybody sees it. It’s either a home run, a strikeout or a walk. That’s kind of how the game’s been going over the years.”