Team gets a slow jump on stealing bases

Through more than a quarter of the season, the Astros have attempted stolen bases much less frequently than they did in A.J. Hinch’s first two years at the helm, a trend the manager correlated to the strategies of opposing defenses as well as roster makeup.

Hinch said opposing pitchers have been quicker to the plate and thrown more pickoffs and “modified pitchouts” to try to counteract the Astros’ running game this season. This year’s Astros roster is also built to run much less than in the past after the offseason additions of Carlos Beltran and Brian McCann.

Jose Altuve is really the Astros’ only stolen base threat who plays regularly. Jake Marisnick is also a threat to steal, but his playing time has been sporadic. George Springer, caught in 10 of his 19 attempts last season, has tried to steal only twice this season and not since April 4. Carlos Correa, good for 27 stolen bases over his first two major league seasons, hasn’t tried once.

“I think we’ve just changed a little bit of the makeup of our team,” Hinch said. “We have such good hitters, I can start guys in motion, and balls are getting put in play. We’ve taken advantage of a few opportunities but not running recklessly into outs.”

Alex Bregman’s fourth stolen base of the season on Wednesday night gave the Astros 22 for the season, putting them on pace for 76 this year. They stole 102 bases last season and 121 in 2015.

Of their 22 steals, Altuve accounts for nine. Six of their 12 position players haven’t stolen even one.

“The way that we can score every inning, I think we don’t have to press the tempo too much,” Hinch said. “But we still have a very athletic team that’s going to run. If they fall asleep, you’ll see that we’ll take the base, even average runners like (Josh) Reddick or Nori (Aoki). But we don’t have to kind of run with our hair on fire like we have in the past.”