One of the more surprising, refreshing, and little-appreciated aspects of the Yankees’ solid season has been the team’s base running. We usually do not spend time talking about Yankee teams and base running because…well…in recent years it has not been good. From 2010 to 2016, the Yankees posted a negative BRR (base running runs, which is the runs better than average a team is at a certain advancement opportunity, with zero representing average) in four of those seasons, including every season from 2014-2016. Take a look at the chart below:

In other words, the Yankees have done a poor job in recent years at taking advantage of opportunities to take the extra base (making it to second successfully on a passed ball, going first to third on a hit to the outfield, etc). This is likely largely due to having older players who simply do not have the speed to do so. You could probably count on one hand a number of times you saw Carlos Beltran, Alex Rodriguez, or Mark Teixeira go from first to third or second to home on singles over the past three seasons.

This year, however, has been a much different story. The Yankees have collectively posted a BRR of 5.9, good for the eighth best mark in baseball (the San Francisco Giants rank first with a score of 9.6). The last time they ranked that high was 2013 when the team ranked ninth with a mark of 4.8. This year’s mark of 5.9 is the sum total of the individual scores given for the five different types of possible advancement by a base runner:

-SBR (Advancement on stolen bases): 2.10
-GAR (Advancement on balls hit on the ground to infielder): 1.18
-AAR (Advancement on balls hit in the air that are caught): 1.71
-HAR (Advancement on hits to the outfield): 1.59
-OAR (Advancement on other opportunities such as wild pitches and passed balls): -0.61

As you can see, the Yankees collectively are slightly better than average in four of the five potential advancement opportunities, while just a tick below average in taking advantage of passed balls and wild pitches (technically, balks are also included in “other”, but by rule the runner is allowed to move up a base, not by choice). The Bombers’ best baserunner in 2017 is unsurprisingly Brett Gardner, who currently boasts a personal BRR score of 3.2, good for 24th in all of baseball. Of the ten Yankees who have had at least 50 opportunities to advance a base or bases in any kind of manner (total base running opportunities), seven have posted scores above zero (again, with zero being average).

The 2017 Yankees being an overall good base running team not only passes the stat test, but it also passes the eye test. Here’s a good example of the kind of the thing that the stats say the Yankees are good at doing this season.

In the seventh inning of Thursday afternoon’s game against Detroit (in between all the brawling and bench clearings), the Yankees had team BRR leader Brett Gardner on first and Jacoby Ellsbury at third with nobody out while trailing by 6-4. Aaron Hicks hit a high fly ball to left which looked as though it was heading out for a three-run home run. Detroit’s Justin Upton leaped at the wall to rob Hicks of a long ball, but Ellsbury still tagged up from third to make it a one-run game.

Perhaps more importantly, Gardner did not get caught up in the fact that the ball may leave the ballpark but instead tagged up from first base and easily made it to second. Having the tying run at second with one out with the three and four place hitters in the lineup due up is a much better position than a runner at first with one out. And on cue, Gary Sanchez immediately followed with a ground ball single to center field that brought Gardner home with the tying run. So yes, while Sanchez gets credit for the RBI, Gardner also deserves a great deal of credit for the superb base running to get Sanchez in a situation where just a single could tie the game.

It feels nice when what the stats tell us and what our eyes/gut tell us actually coincide. In this instance, the two evaluation tools tell us that this Yankee team is quite good at taking the extra base when given the opportunity. As the regular season heads into the home stretch and playoff baseball approaches where outs are as precious as gold, this collective skill can help a team win games and ultimately series.

Photo Credit: Charles LeClaire / USA TODAY Sports

This particular story is an example of the latter type.

Over the past several seasons, Yankee fans have complained ad nauseam about the team’s inability to manufacture runs. In particular, the apparent inability to bring home runners from third.

Indeed, fans can trust what they see with their eyes in this instance. Over the past five seasons, the stats show that the Yankees have not done well at all with chasing in runners from third. The following chart shows the team success rate over the past five seasons with that particular task (I only factored in players who had over 300 total plate appearances in each season since those are theoretically a team’s best hitters, which usually was between 8 and 10 players each year).

In that five year span, the Yankees have ranked in the bottom half in the league in runs scored three times (16th in 2013, 20th in 2014, and 22nd last season), though they did rank second in both 2012 and 2015.

Now here is the good news: new Yankee Matt Holliday can help his new club fix this problem.

Holliday, 37, has been outstanding in getting runners in from third in his career. Over the past five seasons, the veteran has driven in the runner from third in 44.7 percent of his chances (or nearly ten percentage points higher than the Yankees as a team have averaged over that same span). The chart below breaks down how his success rate breaks down over each season:

Holliday’s 48.5 percent success rate in such situations in 2016 ranked 14th in baseball among the 258 players who received at least 300 at-bats. The highest ranked Yankee in 2016 was Starlin Castro, who checked in with a 41.7 percent rate (73rd). No other Yankee ranked in the top 100.

What does this mean in tangible terms? For one thing, it speaks to Holliday’s approach as a hitter. He’s never been a high strikeout guy (16.4 percent strikeout rate for his career, 16.9 percent over the past five seasons) and he puts the ball in play often and all over the field. His style is much different than what we have seen in the Bronx over the past several years when opposing teams shifted heavily in all situations against the likes of Brian McCann and Mark Teixeira.

Holliday’s all-fields/high contact approach seems to make him ideal at situations where any kind of ball in play equals a run. So even if Holliday this season drops down to his average success rate of 44.7 percent over the past five seasons, this important skill should be a big boost to the Yankees’ offense in 2017.

Photo: Butch Dill / USATSI

Masahiro Tanaka continued to be lights out for the Yankees, allowing just two hits while cruising through seven scoreless innings on just 82 pitches. New York is now 7-3 in games started by Tanaka this season.

Offensively, the Yankees used a three-run sixth inning, keyed by a two-run home run from Alex Rodriguez, to take a 3-0 lead. Carlos Beltran added insurance for the Yankees with an eighth inning solo shot, his second home run of the week, to make it 4-0.

Kirby Yates allowed a solo homer to Steve Pearce with two outs in the ninth, but Aroldis Chapman came in to cement the 4-1 win for the Yankees.

THE PLAY: A-Rod’s two-run blast in the 6th (+.216 WPA)

In just his second game back from injury, Alex Rodriguez blasted a two-run home run to center field, scoring Brian McCann to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead in the sixth inning. The home run was Rodriguez’s sixth of the season.

TOP PERFORMERS

Yankees: Masahiro Tanaka (7 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 4 K, 0 BB)

Rays: Chris Archer (8 IP, 4 R (1 ER), 7 K, 3 BB, 2 HR)

NOTES

– Masahiro Tanaka didn’t allow his first hit until the bottom of the fifth when Steve Pearce led off with a single to center field.

– A-Rod’s sixth inning home run was the 693rd homer of his career, moving him closer to the vaunted 700 home run club.

– Jacoby Ellsbury is now 18-for-28 (.643) in his career against Chris Archer with a 2-for-4 performance tonight.

THE HIGHLIGHT: Starlin Castro’s spectacular play up the middle

UP NEXT

The Yankees (23-24) look to get to .500 with a win over Tampa Bay in game two of this series on Saturday afternoon at 4:10 pm. Michael Pineda (2-5, 6.34) takes the mound for New York while Matt Moore (1-3, 5.47) goes for the Rays in a battle of struggling righties. The game will be televised on WPIX 11.

Photo: Kim Klement / USATSI; Video: MLBAM

Chad Green made his major league debut on the mound for the Yankees, and was pitching just fine until a three-run home run by Jake Lamb in the fifth inning spoiled the evening. Lamb’s blast to right-center field broke a 2-2 tie, giving the D-Backs a 5-2 lead en route to a 12-2 victory over New York.

Arizona’s Robbie Ray pitched seven innings of two-run ball, scattering six hits while striking out six Yankees in the process.

Aaron Hicks had two deep fly-outs to the warning track, one to center (4th inning) and one to left (6th inning) before ripping a single up the middle in the ninth. The 4th inning fly-out proved productive as it advanced Beltran to third and Headley to second with just one out. Three hard-hit balls on the night could be a sign Hicks is seeing the ball better after a 2-for-30 (.067) start to the 2016 campaign.

With the loss, the Yankees fall to 4-11 on the road this season, the third-worst road mark in MLB behind Minnesota (4-17) and Cincinnati (3-13).

THE PLAY: Jake Lamb’s 3-run home run to make it 5-2 in the fifth (+.205 WPA)

TOP PERFORMERS

Yankees: Mark Teixeira (3-for-4, 1 run scored)

D-Backs: Robbie Ray (7 IP, 6 hits, 2 earned runs, 6 Ks, 1 BB)

NOTES

– Didi Gregorius went 1-for-4 with an error in his Arizona homecoming after playing 183 games for the D-Backs between 2013–14.

– Chad Green’s final line in his debut: 4 IP, 8 hits, 6 runs (4 earned), 5 Ks, 1 BB, 2 home runs; 79 pitchers, 46 strikes

– Paul Goldschmidt officially welcomed Green to the bigs with a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning, his eighth of the season.

THE HIGHLIGHT: Ellsbury’s triple + error to score and tie it at 2-2

UP NEXT

Tuesday night’s game two match-up features Michael Pineda (1-4, 6.28) against Zack Greinke (3-3, 5.26) in a battle of two under-performing pitchers. Greinke is 2-4 with a 5.92 ERA in 12 career games against the Yankees, his worst mark against any major league team. Meanwhile, the Yankees will once again be in dire need of offense after scoring just three runs in their last three road games.

Photo: Joe Camporeale / USA Today Sports; Video: MLBAM