Diamondbacks renew interest in running game with Jake McCarthy's return

In the second inning Monday afternoon, Josh Rojas timed the pitch clock and tore off for third base without a throw. Behind him, Jake McCarthy did the same, taking second with ease.

The double steal was not notable so much for its impact on the game — both runners would have scored on Pavin Smith’s homer regardless — as what it represented.

In the first 10 games this season, the Diamondbacks led the majors with 17 stolen bases. It seemed, at the time, to be a trend that would continue all year. They have one of the fastest rosters in the league, a guru of a baserunning coach in Dave McKay and the benefit of new rules to encourage base stealing. Sports Illustrated highlighted the Diamondbacks as the face of a new era.

Then they went silent. Entering play Monday, the Diamondbacks had stolen just 26 bases in 43 games since April 10. Over that span, they ranked 22nd in steals and 11th in Fangraphs’ all-encompassing baserunning metric.

So, what gives?

“Well, you've gotta remember,” McKay said, “McCarthy got sent out and then Corbin (Carroll) had some issues with his knee so we had to back off him.”

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Manager Torey Lovullo is quick to add a third name to that list. “We have another player that's a great baserunner in Josh Rojas, he's just kind of grinding right now and hasn't been getting on base as often as he was early on,” Lovullo said.

Together, McCarthy and Rojas’ struggles along with Carroll being limited by a knee injury for two weeks have played a significant role in the Diamondbacks backing off of their aggressiveness on the bases.

In the first two weeks after Carroll got hurt crashing into a wall in Colorado — a span during which McCarthy was in Triple-A and Rojas hit under .200 — the Diamondbacks stole just seven bases. With McCarthy back and Carroll healthy, they’ve now nabbed 13 in the last nine games, a rate close to the beginning of the season.

There’s also, McKay says, a circumstantial aspect to stealing bases.

“We weren't trying to lead the league in stolen bases,” McKay said. “That was brought up early. 'Hey, you guys are on top of the league.' Well, we're not trying to lead the league in stealing bases. We just stole a lot of bases because the opportunity was there.”

Early on, when pitchers were still adapting to the new rules, those opportunities were abundant. Now, moments like Monday — when Rockies pitcher Karl Kauffmann let the pitch clock trickle down to one second before beginning his delivery — come less frequently.

“You're taking advantage of (the new rules) and now people are figuring out their way around that,” McKay said. “And then a lot of pitchers are saying, hey, you've gotta start slide stepping, you've gotta be quicker to the plate.”

League-wide, there has not been a drop-off in stolen bases. Teams are stealing 0.7 bases per game now, just as they were in the first two weeks.

The Diamondbacks, though, operate differently than most teams when it comes to baserunning. Few coaches pore over as much video as McKay, searching for any possible advantage. Since he arrived in Arizona, the Diamondbacks have consistently been one of the league’s best baserunning teams, even in their worst years.

While the pitch clock — and the limit to two pickoff attempts per at-bat — certainly have their benefits, they’ve also curtailed some of the details McKay has previously used to his advantage.

“There are definitely some downsides to it,” McKay said. “I like to have guys throw over. I'll sit over at the time to go, I need to have this guy throw over at least once. Meanwhile, he doesn't throw over at all, we don't run at all because we're waiting for him to throw over.”

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With some of those little tells — signs that a pitcher is ripe to be stolen against — having changed, McKay has had to search for new advantages. Early on, those were pitch clock related before pitchers adapted. Recently, he’s had Gabriel Moreno steal three bases because teams weren’t throwing over against him.

“They were just not paying attention,” McKay said. “He's getting a good enough time to steal it so we stole it because we knew they weren't throwing over.”

The biggest difference between now and the beginning of the season, though, is the simplest one. “I'm excited about having Jake back and Corbin healthy, yes,” McKay said. “Very much so.”

And what was McKay’s reaction, earlier this week, when he learned of McCarthy’s return?

“That we'll probably do a little bit more running,” McKay said, breaking into a laugh.

That was Friday, before McCarthy’s first game back. In the four days since, the Diamondbacks have stolen six bases. Three of those have been from McCarthy.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks aiming to get back to stealing bases