Breaking Down Alek Thomas' Caught Stealing From Monday Night

With the lead runner on and Geraldo Perdomo at the plate, to be followed by Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte, the D-backs had a golden opportunity to push across a run and tie the game.

Mets Closer Edwin Diaz was on the mound, and Torey Lovullo felt there was a good chance to get Thomas to second base. "We identified that closer, we could potentially steal some bases off of them. And there's a time and a trigger, and we identified it."

Diaz has been notoriously easy to steal on in his career. In 2024 base runners swiped 22 bases and were caught just once. For his career baserunners have been successful 73 out of 87 times, 84%. He came into tonight having allowed just two of four successful attempts however.

With the count 1-0, Thomas took off for second as Diaz delivered a pitch outside. He did not get a good jump. In fact Lovullo, who is loathe to criticize players publicly, was uncharacteristically blunt in his assessment of the jump that Thomas got.

"We just got a late jump, a super, super late jump, where we wouldn't take a high risk chance in that situation, unless we felt like we'd be successful. So once again, it comes down to execution, we just didn't execute it right."

The result was a caught stealing, erasing Thomas on the bases. But it also took a a career best pop time of 1.82 on a caught stealing from catcher Francisco Alvarez, as reported by Sarah Langs. And then there was an incredible tag from shortstop Francisco Lindor.

The play was as close as could be, and some angles seemed to indicate that Thomas was safe, but the call was upheld upon review. That means there was not enough enough evidence to overturn it.

Thomas was one of the last players to get dressed and prepared to leave the clubhouse, but he stayed to speak with the media about the play. He thought he was safe, but acknowledged no matter what the call was it probably would have been too close to overturn on review.

"What I felt was that I was safe. Looking at a couple of different angles of the replay I felt like I could see it one way, and then maybe see it the other. But definitely more of my way, which is safe. But I think if the call was safe initially and then if the Mets asked for review, I would have been safe that way."

Thomas also addressed his jump. "I was just trying to get a good jump and I guess I just wasn't good enough."

Told that it took Alvarez fastest pop time of his career to catch him, Thomas gave a wry smile. "I feel like a lot times I steal something stupid happens, so that makes sense. I'm going to try to keep going. I don't have the most confidence in stealing and I should."

Despite his speed, Thomas has never been a high percentage base stealer. He is now 20 for 27 in MLB, 75%. In the minor leagues he was 48 for 75, 62%. The Diamondbacks believe as an organization they need to be successful above 80% for the risks to be worth the reward.

Between the Alvarez pop time and the Lindor tag, Thomas was at a loss to explain why this would happen to him in such a key situation. "Like I said, it was just stupid. All the things that happen whenever I do steal, happened in the minors, happened all the time in high school. But they're both great players, Francisco and the other Francisco, but I thought I was safe"

The D-backs might not have driven Thomas home anyway. Perdomo flew out to left, and Carroll struck out swinging to end the game. But of course those at bats might have looked and felt quite different with Thomas standing on second base and nobody out. We'll never know.

This was not the only base running mistake on the night. Josh Naylor failed to go from first to third on a 412 foot fly ball off the centerfield wall by Eugenio Suarez in the eighth. Two runs had already scored on the play, and Naylor should have made it to third base, giving the D-backs second and third with out out and first base open. Instead, he only got to second, leaving Suarez with the longest single of the Statcast era since 2015.

"I think you gotta get to second base and just watch and see what's going on. I'm sure that he thought the ball was gonna be caught, potentially tag up at first base, and get to second base, get in a scoring position. But there's a little bit of a technique that we gotta follow and be a little bit better and get to third base with one out, for sure."

On follow up Lovullo was asked if perhaps Naylor though Marte was tagging and thus was hesitant to go. But the manager explained in detail how that was not the correct play from Naylor.

They're independent of one another. They have different responsibilities. And A should not be watching B. A should know what B is doing, but shouldn't be watching him. Ketel should be in or around his own spot where if the ball's caught, he gets back and tags and comfortably gets to third base. If the ball's not caught, he's far enough off that he's gonna walk into home plate."

Marte did his part correctly, as he scored easily. Lovullo continued the explanation:

"Naylor should aggressively be close to second base. And if the ball drops, he's easily gonna get to third base. but I'm sure that he thought the ball was gonna be caught. And he was gonna tag and get himself in a scoring position at second base."

These were just two of the most obvious plays in the game that were not executed properly that are most evident to folks watching. But there were things inside the game that Lovullo was unhappy about too.

"What eats at me are a lot of the little things. It's the bounce passes to the infielders from the outfielders on cuts and relays. It's not understanding assignments on defense and being in the right place at the right spot, and anticipation of what's going on in the play around you"

"Those things are really frustrating, and we gotta figure it out. That's my job to make sure the coaches are coaching, and the coaches coach, the players to go out there and do it. I can't keep sitting up here and saying, this is what's wrong. We gotta tighten it up"

The Diamondbacks were previously known to play crisp, heads up baseball. But defense and base running and execution of the little things has been lacking and continues to cost the team on the margins. For a team struggling to hit and pitch with consistency, it's just one more area that has led to lackluster play and a medicore 18-17 record.