It takes more than a catcher to stop a thief

FORT MYERS, Fla. - Opposing runners stole more bases against the Red Sox last season than any other team in the American League - just like they did in each of the two seasons before that.

Don't blame Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Don't blame Jason Varitek.

Blame the pitchers.

"The only way the catcher has a chance is if we give it to them," Daniel Bard said. "Even a great-throwing catcher can't make up for a pitcher that's not doing his job and keeping the runner guessing. The catcher has no chance without the pitcher."

"Pitchers control the running game, in my opinion," new Red Sox pitching coach Bob McClure said.

Advanced defensive metrics back up those assertions. Prominent statistician John Dewan assigns two-thirds of the responsibility for limited base-stealers to pitchers and just one-third to catchers. Red Sox pitchers, according to Dewan, cost their team 16 runs with their failure to field their position - and holding runners had a lot to do with that.

Runners stole successfully 100 percent of the time they ran on Alfredo Aceves and Daisuke Matsuzaka, 92 percent on John Lackey and 89 percent on Josh Beckett.

"Part of it is the pitching," Beckett said. "We have to do a better job. But there's other aspects as well - how you field the ball around the base, who's throwing, how good the throw is. … There's got to be a good exchange. The pitcher has got to be quick. The shortstop or second baseman has to field the ball correctly."

But statistics indicate the pitcher has more to do with it than has commonly been believed. To wit: Saltalalamacchia caught Lackey and Tim Wakefield on a regular basis last season, and he threw out runners four times more frequently when Wakefield pitched than when Lackey pitched.

"The caught-stealing percentage for Mark Buehrle is probably like 60 percent over his career - there's no catcher that good," said Dewan, the author of "The Fielding Bible." "The worst pitcher might be allowing 90 percent or 95 percent, and there's no catcher that bad. The pitcher just has more responsibility - holding that runner, the type of move you have to first, that sort of thing, release time to the plate. All that comes into play and makes holding runners and controlling the running game more of the pitcher's responsibility than the catcher."

Holding runners simply hasn't been a priority for the Red Sox in recent years. Former manager Terry Francona repeatedly made clear he wanted his pitchers - and his fielders - to focus on the hitter, no matter what the situation.

The result at times has been a merry-go-round on the basepaths. Eight times in the last three seasons has a team stolen seven or more bases in a game. Five of those came against the Red Sox.

"Certain teams used to pick on us - the Rays would be stealing five or seven times a game," Bard said. "It became a problem. The Rays were a really tough team for us to beat because if they could get the leadoff man on, they could score him. They'd steal on the first, second, third pitch, and they'd bunt him to third and then he's in.

"If you do that three or four different innings, that's three or four free runs and they didn't really have to hit. That definitely made it tough on us the last few years."

But the approach to holding runners appears to have changed under Bobby Valentine this spring.

"I played with Nolan Ryan, I coached Dwight Gooden, I coached Tom Seaver," Valentine said. "No one was ever more staunch advocates of 'Who gives a (darn) if they get to second base?' It was in a different era. If you can keep them on first and get a double play, a lot of times, that means a whole other inning. It means an entire other inning that that starter could pitch. If he goes to second and you get the next three guys out and you use your arsenal, a lot of times, that's your last inning. That's a big difference in today's game."

Valentine said he didn't think Red Sox pitchers paid much attention to runners in the past. Former pitching coach John Farrell, now the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, didn't totally dispute the assertion.

"If you spend a lot of time focusing on the guy at first, the next thing you know, they're all jogging around the bases," Farrell said. "The pitch execution was the priority. That's not to distance the need to control the running game."

One oft-employed technique for keeping runners from stealing is to disrupt their rhythm by holding the ball. If a base-stealer can't guess when a pitcher might go into his windup, he loses a critical edge.

"Talking to (Carl) Crawford, he's said that when a guy holds it for more than like two seconds, he can't run," Bard said. "He freezes up. That's pretty common even among really good base-stealers. Usually, a three- or four-second hold, you don't see a good jump on many of those."

Learning how to do something even as simple as that takes time.

"Holding the ball for two seconds seemed like two minutes," reliever Michael Bowden said. "Now I feel more comfortable out there, and I can hold the ball and not get anxious and assess the situation and do what I need to do."

Valentine still wants his pitchers to focus on the hitter at the plate. He just wants them to be mindful enough of the runners on base that they can't steal at will.

"It's a cat-and-mouse game, basically," Clay Buchholz said. "They're going to steal their bags, but if you can get them off-balance or out of sync over there, it's better for the guy on the mound to get the guy at home plate out."RUNNING AWAY WITH IT

Total stolen bases allowed (A.L.) in 2011

1. Boston, 156

2. Chicago, 135

3. New York, 128

4. Los Angeles, 126

t-5. Detroit and Oakland, 119

Opposing base-stealers' success, by pitcher, 2011

Alfredo Aceves: 9 for 9 (100 percent)

Daisuke Matsuzaka: 6 for 6 (100 percent)

Jonathan Papelbon: 6 for 6 (100 percent)

Franklin Morales: 5 for 5 (100 percent)

John Lackey: 33 for 36 (92 percent)

Josh Beckett: 31 for 35 (89 percent)

Andrew Miller: 8 for 9 (89 percent)

Daniel Bard: 7 for 8 (88 percent)

Clay Buchholz: 6 for 9 (67 percent)

Matt Albers: 6 for 10 (60 percent)

Tim Wakefield: 12 for 21 (57 percent)

Jon Lester: 14 for 26 (54 percent)

Felix Doubront: 2 for 5 (40 percent)

Dan Wheeler: 1 for 3 (33 percent)



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