San Francisco Giants Finally Break Historic, Bizarre Stolen Base Attempt Drought

The fact that the Giants' streak came in 2023 is especially odd, considering MLB introduced limited pickoff attempts, bigger bases and shift restrictions with the goal of increasing stolen base attempts.

Most other teams took the hint.

In an analysis of the impact of the rule changes distributed to the media at the All-Star Game, MLB revealed that stolen base attempts were up 50% over 2022, while stolen base percentage was up 4% year-over-year.

San Francisco ranks 20th in the league with a 78.3% success rate when they do try to steal, which is down from the team's 80.0% rate in 2022. Manager Gabe Kapler is calling for fewer steals as well, dropping his mark from 0.49 per game last year to 0.47 this season.

Ironically, Estrada's stolen base in the seventh inning Wednesday got him into scoring position, and he crossed home three at-bats later. That gave the Giants an insurance run it turned out they needed to pull out an extra-inning victory.

San Francisco blew a 5-2 lead in the ninth when closer Camilo Doval gave up a three-run home run to designated hitter Bryce Harper. In the 10th inning, though, the visitors got those three runs back, including one on a sacrifice fly by Estrada.

Despite the win Wednesday, the Giants have still lost five of their last seven games to drop out of the NL playoff picture. At 66-61, San Francisco is 0.5 games back of the final NL Wild Card spot, ranking fifth out of the six teams competing for the three bonus berths.

The Giants open a series with the Atlanta Braves on Friday. First pitch from Oracle Park is scheduled for 10:15 p.m. ET.