AL East-leading Red Sox bucking baseball's home-run trend

NEW YORK – This year has seen more home runs hit around Major League Baseball than all but seven previous seasons, and there still are four weeks to go. By the time it's over, there is a good chance this will be the first time in history that 6,000 home runs are hit in a big-league campaign.

Not everyone, however, is blasting balls over fences at a record pace. The Giants are the biggest power stragglers in the game, with only 110 dingers entering play on Tuesday as San Francisco limps through what may be the second 100-loss season in team history.

In the American League, the team with the fewest home runs, with 145, is the Red Sox. Yet, despite lagging behind the rest of the Junior Circuit in homer output, Boston is incredibly leading the East.

"Maybe we're getting more base hits and not homers, man, I don't know," Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. "We go first to third, just playing baseball, that's it."

The Red Sox do get a lot of base hits - their 1,241 for the season entering Sunday ranked fifth in the majors - and they lead the AL in runners going from first base to third base on a single. Boston is also fifth in the majors in stolen bases and ranks sixth in percentage of extra bases taken.

But all that running comes at a price, as the Red Sox lead the majors by a wide margin in outs on the basepaths with 71. The Astros are second in that category at 61.

(Photo courtesy: Action Images)

Making outs on the bases, though, requires having runners there to begin with, and the Red Sox are 10th in the majors in team on-base percentage. Of the teams reaching base better than Boston's .333 clip, the only one not in a playoff position is the Cardinals.

"I think the whole home run, all these stats that people have now, you get home runs or base hits, you have a better chance of winning, I take all that with a grain of salt," said Red Sox reliever Addison Reed. "You've got to score more runs than the other team, no matter how you do it. If you hit five solo home runs, and the other team scores seven runs on four hits and three errors, that team's gonna win.

"This team, we don't need to hit home runs with how good we are, how good the pitching staff is. Give us a few runs, and there's a pretty good chance we're going to win the game."

Reed's point boils down to the basis of the game - scoring more runs than the opposition. Boston allows 4.11 runs per game and scores 4.76. The major-league average is 4.66, so the Red Sox have really good pitching and defense, and an above-average lineup, even without many longballs.

On the flip side is the team Reed played for earlier this season. The Mets are tied for fourth in baseball with 196 home runs, but average only 4.56 runs per game. Meanwhile, New York allows 5.19 runs per game with a pitching staff that allows more baserunners than anyone in the majors and a group of fielders who rank dead last in defensive runs saved.

The result is that the homer-happy Mets are playing out the string on a dismal season and the stay-in-the-yard Red Sox are gearing up for the playoffs.

"There's teams that might hit a lot of home runs that might finish toward the bottom," said first baseman Mitch Moreland, who is tied for third on the Red Sox with 18 home runs. "Our pitching's been great for us all year. The game's not about homers. We find ways to win."