Watch: Brewers catcher steals home

Catcher William Contreras swiped home in the third inning of the Milwaukee Brewers’ 6-0 over the San Francisco Giants on Thursday. With two outs and a 1-2 count, Willy Adames broke for second and got himself in a rundown. Giants shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald inexplicably threw to third base and Contreras scored without a throw.

While the Brewers’ All-Star catcher is having another excellent year, hitting 18 home runs and driving in 77 runs, that was his sixth stolen base on the season. It’s more of a sign of the Giants’ general incompetence than Contreras’ wheels, though he did display excellent base running.

But in an era where baseball teams have embraced the stolen base to a huge degree, the Giants are lagging behind. Stolen bases increased by 41 percent in 2023 after rule changes widened the bases and limited pitchers’ ability to make pickoff throws. Not only are teams stealing more bases, they’re doing it more efficiently. ... Just not in San Francisco. 

The Giants are tied for last in the big leagues with only 55 stolen bases on the season. They’ve also allowed the most stolen bases with 128 after Thursday’s two-steal effort by the Brewers. In other words, they’re not prepared for baseball’s stolen base revival, on either side of the ball. In part because of the club’s reliance on adding veteran free agents nearly every offseason, the team tends to be older, and thus slower, on the offensive side.

But there’s no excuse for giving up steals of home on plays that Little League teams routinely thwart. The whopping stolen base disparity is a big reason why the Giants are above average in advanced stats for both offense and pitching, but are currently below .500 and nearly out of the playoff race.

Ultimately, it proves that to make a playoff run in baseball, you need to be able to run, or at least stop the run. The Giants can’t do either, and as result, they’ll be staying home for a third straight October.