Officially Braves rookie Mallex Smith got caught stealing second base. In reality he essentially had the base stolen, only to give it back.
The Brewers won a replay challenge on Smith’s stolen base attempt in the seventh inning of Tuesday’s game after second-base umpire Tony Randazzo ruled Smith safe. Major League Baseball officials in New York determined that Smith came off the bag as he popped up from his feet-first slide, with second baseman Scooter Gennett applying the tag.
Smith made the last out of the inning in a tie game, and the Braves went on to lose 2-1.
“It’s just a shame when a kid is patient, gets a good jump, steals the base clearly, something like that deters from having a runner in scoring position,” Braves interim manager Brian Snitker said.
It’s the second time this season the Braves lost a replay challenge in which it was ruled Smith was tagged out after coming off the base. After that happened in Boston, Smith vowed that he would be sure to be “all the way safe” on such future plays.
But he again got tagged out after a pop-up slide gone wrong. Smith said it’s “depressing” to do everything right to steal a base only to mess up the aftermath.
“Just got to work on staying on the bag,” Smith said. “With everything under the microscope like it is, I’ve got to make the adjustment.”
Smith also slides headfirst at times but said he doesn’t have a predetermined plan on which method to use when going into bases.
“I don’t really consider, especially me sliding, something that you can really change,” Smith said. “It’s just something that I have to make a conscious effort to try to adjust. Maybe staying a little bit lower. I don’t know. We will figure it out as we go along.”
In 36 games played for the Braves Smith has shown his superlative speed and has some key hits to his credit, including an RBI triple in the fifth inning on Tuesday. But his base running needs work.
Smith ranks below average in the FanGraphs base-running metric that includes base-stealing statistics as well as other factors such as taking extra bases and getting thrown out on the bases. He’s been caught stealing on half of his 12 attempts.
Snitker managed the Braves’ Triple-A affiliate until being promoted last week. He said minor-league instructors may have to start stressing to base runners that they need to concentrate on staying on the bag after reaching it.
“We are talking about (fielders) never giving up a tag and that’s all part of it, too, because guys now are holding tags throughout the whole play and if you come off at all (it’s an out),” Snitker said. “Obviously it was pretty evident that (Smith) did.”
