The Yankees and Red Sox played a fascinating game Sunday night, the Red Sox setting a franchise record by stealing nine bases in the 9-3 win. The high number of steals led to a discussion about the Yankees having a problem stopping the opposition from running.

From the Red Sox point of view, they were exploiting a weakness, and literally getting the team fired up. They enjoyed the running, and as a team building move I suspect it worked great. It also enhance an offense that had a big night at the plate in terms of getting men on base, but only produced one extra-base hit. Those steals turned walks and singles into doubles and triples. (The Red Sox collected 14 hits, six walks, and a hit by pitch. They should have scored a lot of runs with no steals.)

From the Yankees point of view, I don’t believe they have a problem because they did not try to stop the running game. A number of great pitchers (Jim Palmer comes to mind, but I think Greg Maddux falls into his category) didn’t care of runners stole. As a pitcher, their concentration was on the batter. If the pitcher could get the batter out, the runner was unlikely to score. Marcus Stroman pitched very well with runners in scoring position coming into the the game, allowing a .130 BA and the Red Sox went two for seven in that situation against him last night, and six for fifteen in the game.

For the Yankees, the failure did not come from allowing base runners to advance, but from preventing the hits that would drive them in.