Gentry a steal for Orioles

The Orioles finally are back at .500, they're 1 1/2 games behind for the second wild card and FanGraphs now puts their playoff chances at 11 percent.

It's a long season, folks. Buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Craig Gentry stole third base twice in the series opener against the Tigers last week at Camden Yards, which left people scrambling to find out the last time that an Orioles player did it in the same game.

Or maybe I was the only one curious about it.

Anyway, Corey Patterson was the last Oriole to swipe third twice on May 27, 2007 against the Athletics, according to STATS Research.

It seemed like an especially bold move by Gentry in the third inning with the Orioles behind by seven runs, but he was safe and later scored on Manny Machado's sacrifice fly. And in the seventh inning with the Orioles down 7-3, but he was safe and later scored on Machado's ground ball.

Some might call it "questionable" or perhaps "reckless." But Gentry is 82-for-97 in stolen bases over his career and was successful on 44 of 49 attempts in 2013-2014 with the Rangers and Athletics. He went 18-for-18 in 2011.

Give the man a green light.

Manager Buck Showalter said there are certain aspects of basestealing that can be taught or improved, but he adds a disclaimer.

"A lot of that is instinctual," he said. "It also takes ... take out the fear factor, think about consequences. 'What if I get thrown out? What if I get picked off?' If you're constantly putting that into your mind, you're never going to go.

"There are enough variables that say don't go. Times to the plate, catcher throws well, with the replay. You can go through a million reasons not to go. The score's 7-2 and if I get thrown out at third ... If you put that type of harness on a lot of people, they're never going to steal a base. And I think that's what's happened, one reason why stolen bases are down so much.

"I think one thing is because outs are so precious. If you're not stealing at a high percentage rate ... I think there was one team ahead of us in stolen base percentage last time I looked. Maybe two. But there was a team at 50 percent. That's just throwing outs away. That's kind of like the sac bunt sometimes in today's game. And guys aren't getting much of a return for that, especially in the American League. How many really pure basestealers are there in the American League that you can go 1.2 to the plate and they're going to steal anyway unless you make a perfect throw?"

Showalter endorses Gentry's daring, but it can make a manager wince at times. Like when he breaks for third base with seven- and four-run deficits.

"Of course. Of course I did. I didn't wince when we scored a run," Showalter said, smiling.

"Let me tell you what happens when you only go in perfect situations. The other team knows exactly what a perfect situation is, OK? It's like a 30-foot jump shot. 'Oh gosh, I can't believe he shot that.' Then it goes through the net and you go, 'That's a good play.' You want guys to steal bases and be aggressive. You put a lot of shackles on them ... You've got to give them that freedom that if they feel it, they go.

"Craig steals third a lot, if you notice, on breaking balls. How he knows that is another story."

Let him tell it.

"I think a lot of times that's just kind of a coincidence, but I think just reading the game, reading the count, reading the situation, and sometimes I have an idea of when there's a better chance of an off-speed pitch being thrown and things like that," Gentry said. "Having a better idea when I know there's not going to be a pickoff and I get a little more aggressive. There's just a lot of things I've kind of picked up over the years from different players and my own experiences that kind of play into it, so I can't attribute it to just one thing.

"Saying they're all breaking balls, a lot of times that's just coincidence. But yeah, if I do know for a fact that they're throwing it, I'm definitely going to try to be more aggressive, for sure."

No matter the score.

"That was early in the game and we had a lot of game left at that point," Gentry said. "There's nobody out and we had our biggest part of the lineup coming up. For me, I'd rather be on third base, nobody out. I think any guy who produces RBIs wants that, too. They can drive a guy in without getting a hit and that's what happened both times. That's my goal in those situations and that's what I'm trying to do. Obviously, it doesn't always work out that way, but I'm not going to go if I'm not very, very confident, especially in a game like that, when we're down by a lot of runs. But if I'm very confident that I'm going to be safe, I'm going to risk it right there."

Showalter always has been supportive of Gentry. He's wanted to keep the veteran on the roster all season, but circumstances didn't always allow it.

"Craig's going to impact your team when he plays every night," Showalter said. "He's going to steal a base, he's going to make a throw, he's going to catch a ball that other people don't catch. He gets on base and he makes the other team adjust to him.

"He's one of those guys where the other team has to adjust to the speed he's able to play the game at that most people aren't able to play it at. He got Manny two RBIs (Thursday) night just by doing things."

Bold, brave things.