Deconstructing Arozarena's amazing steal

ST. PETERSBURG -- Throughout the year, Randy Arozarena would seek out manager Kevin Cash and say, “Verde! Verde! Verde!” If he’s on first base, he’ll grab a chunk of green grass and toss it in view of the Rays’ coaches.

Whenever Arozarena is on base, he wants the green light.

That feeling was especially strong during the final week of the season, when Arozarena was closing in on a 20-homer, 20-steal campaign. And he couldn’t hide it when he reached third base with Red Sox lefty Josh Taylor on the mound in the seventh inning of the Rays’ 5-0 win in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Thursday night at Tropicana Field.

“When he got to third base, first pitch, he wanted to go,” Rays third-base coach Rodney Linares said Friday. “He told me, like, ‘I can take this bag.’”

He could and did, eventually, adding to his October legend by becoming the first player in history to homer and steal home in the same postseason game.

? Watch the steal of home from every angle

Sometimes, there are deep and complex backstories -- long scouting reports and lengthy coaches’ meetings -- behind unforgettable moments like that. But for as much drama and excitement as there was packed into that one play, it all came down to Arozarena’s decision to run and his ability to pull it off.

“The credit, it goes to Randy,” Cash said. “We've got a lot of fearless players; nobody's fearless like that guy.”

As much as Arozarena wanted to dash home the moment he arrived at third base, the Rays wanted to give Brandon Lowe -- who hit 39 homers and drove in 99 runs during the season -- a chance to hit against Taylor. With third baseman Rafael Devers shifted over into shortstop territory, Arozarena kept dancing off the bag, extending his lead closer and closer to the plate fully in Taylor’s line of sight, but he wasn’t cleared to take off.

“After each pitch, he kept saying, ‘Can I get it? Can I get it? Can I get it?’” Linares said.

When Lowe fell into a two-strike count, a tough situation for a lefty hitter against a lefty pitcher who dominates same-handed opposition, Cash made a hand gesture that Linares picked up from his spot in the third-base coach’s box.

Just like that, Arozarena had the green light he wanted.

“I just walked up to him and I said, ‘Can you get it now?’ And B-Lowe fouled off that pitch,” Linares said. “So the next pitch, I walked up to him and said, ‘As soon as he gets set, just go.’”

It was a perfect storm, in some ways. As a left-handed hitter, Lowe was on the other side of the plate from where Arozarena would come diving in. And to defend against Lowe, Devers remained way off the bag. Arozarena said he noticed that Taylor wasn’t watching and that Devers wasn’t covering the bag. So he looked over to Linares and told him, “I’m going to go. I’m going to go.”

Linares had to act natural, however, to avoid tipping the Rays’ hand.

“I walked back and kind of acted like nothing was happening. Looking at Devers, and Devers kept looking at me,” Linares said. “I peeked out of the corner of my eye and -- whoa, he's gone.”

Arozarena broke down the line, reaching a top sprint speed of 28.2 feet per second, according to Statcast. By the time Taylor stepped off and fired a surprisingly strong, albeit high, throw to catcher Christian Vázquez, Arozarena was already starting his head-first dive toward the plate.

“They did a good job. He was playing with him the whole at-bat, right?” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We were close to him, and then he got back to the bag. And then in that one he kind of, like, timed him perfectly -- and he took off. It caught everybody by surprise. … It's a great baseball play.”

“He was getting a huge lead, so it was smart running from him. It was a great play,” Vázquez added. “You don’t see that very often, so it was very impressive. He is an electric kid. He is a great player. He was taking a huge lead at third base, so nothing we can do there.”

Linares said Taylor’s throw made the play closer than anticipated. But the third-base coach believed that, if Arozarena did everything he needed to do, he’d be safe. Meanwhile, Lowe hung in the batter’s box as long as he could. Like Linares, he had to play it cool before he quickly bailed out of the box.

“I was, like, ‘It's normal. Don't do anything. Like, don't give anything away. Taylor is not looking. Vazquez isn't looking. Treat it like an at-bat,’” Lowe said. “And as soon as he stepped off, I was, like, ‘Got to get out. Don't be in the way.’ You kind of saw it coming with how aggressive he was, but for him to actually do it is kind of surprising.”

Lowe said he’d never been a part of a play like that. A day later, Rays reliever J.P. Feyereisen said he still couldn’t believe Arozarena did it. It was still the talk of the clubhouse, a play the Rays won’t soon forget no matter what happens the rest of the month.

“You know,” Linares said, “that was probably one of the highlights of my coaching career.”