There’s no reason to panic five games into a 162-game season, but the Red Sox do have a glaring issue they’d benefit from fixing sooner rather than later.
Opponents are a perfect 12-for-12 in stolen base opportunities against Boston this season. The Baltimore Orioles stole five bags on Opening Day — including three against Ryan Brasier — and the Pittsburgh Pirates swiped two in their 4-1 win over the Red Sox on Tuesday night at Fenway Park.
Ten of the 12 steals came against the O’s, but the Red Sox already have given up the most steals in Major League Baseball. Sure, both the Pirates and the Orioles are fast teams, but they clearly have found an area where Boston struggles and have capitalized on it and used it to their advantage.
Reese McGuire, who took “complete ownership” of Tuesday’s loss after not catching strike three that would have ended the second inning before the Pirates took the lead on a go-ahead home run by Ji Hwan Bae, has been behind the plate for all 12 stolen bases. It’s a bit uncharacteristic of the catcher, who MassLive’s Christopher Smith pointed out threw out 42% of runners last year after being traded to Boston.
“Shoot, I take pride in throwing guys out. So I feel like I need to do a better job of just putting a little bit better, accurate throw. But I look forward to the next opportunity these guys run because the arm’s starting to feel better, honestly,” McGuire told reporters after the game, per MassLive. “The weather is getting a little bit warmer. So I feel like the first series was obviously cold and it was a little tough to get a grip on the ball. But I think moving forward, we’ve already done a good job of making adjustments on the mound with our time to the plate. And we’ve been really happy with how that’s been.”
Maybe it is just rust and McGuire will find a groove and be able to throw runners out as the season progresses. Maybe it’s just getting used to the pitch clock. Whatever the issue is, the Red Sox must make adjustments in order to hold runners and keep them out of scoring position.
Boston wraps up its series against the Pirates on Wednesday afternoon. First pitch from Fenway Park is set for 1:35 p.m. ET and you can catch all the action on NESN beginning at 12:30 p.m.
