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| (Mark L. Baer | USA Today Sports) |
While there's been a lot of focus on their struggles with runners in scoring position, it's now apparent that the Red Sox running game itself is a big problem. Boston base-runners have now been caught stealing at a 50% rate. This is
way below their expected
rate of 75%. Things are so bad that the normally measured
John Farrell let go with this doozy,
"The efficiency rate is alarming, almost to the point of saying we need to shut down our running game unless it is determined by us that we can be 100 percent sure — or more than 50 percent sure — of success. We’re always going to look to take the extra base whenever we can, but the straight-out steal has been something where we’ve given away far too many outs on the bases." Jeez, John, tell us what you
really feel about the running game. We hate to beat a pinstriped horse, but the words
'Jacoby Ellsbury' leap to mind when discussing this issue.
