Their tradition of power aside, Isotopes are happy to steal runs as well

They’ve hardly abandoned the long ball.

After all, they still play at Isotopes Park — that patch of grass sitting a mile high in the thin New Mexico air that pitchers not-so-affectionately refer to as “the moon” because of how the ball flies there.

But in case you haven’t noticed, the Albuquerque Isotopes have inserted themselves directly into the Pacific Coast League second-half title race due in no small part to a newfound fondness of playing a little bit of small ball.

Yes, the Albuquerque Isotopes — they of the record-setting home run season of 2022 — are now stealing bases, stretching singles into doubles with regularity and becoming good old-fashioned nuisances on the base paths.

“It’s something that I’ve always loved doing,” said Isotopes manager Pedro Lopez, whose Isotopes defeated the Sacramento River Cats in a wild one, 10-9, on Saturday night.

“We tried to do it in the first half (of the season). That’s one of the things that we were preaching to guys to do was to be more aggressive on the base path. Unfortunately, being down in games didn’t allow us to play that kind of game because (when) we’re down, I’m not giving away outs on the bases.”

Entering Saturday’s game, which they played as their alter ego Green Chile Cheeseburgers, the Isotopes had 80 stolen bases — tied for the third fewest in the Pacific Coast League.

They had 41 stolen bases in the first 75 games of the season — the halfway point of the league’s new split-season format that crowns a first half and a second half champion. That was an average of .55 stolen bases per game.

The Isotopes also had the worst record in Triple A baseball at the halfway point at 27-48.

Through the first 25 games of the second half of the season, the Isotopes had 39 stolen bases (1.56 stolen bases per game) and entered Saturday’s game with a 15-10 record and in second place in the PCL standings — one game behind first-half champion Oklahoma City.

Conversely, the Isotopes, in second place in the PCL in home runs (144 entering Saturday, behind only Las Vegas’ 156), have seen the long ball dip in the second half. The team hit 1.52 home runs per game in the first half (114 in 75 games); that’s dipped to 1.2 per game in the team’s 25 second half games (30).

“Since day one, if you look at how many home runs we have hit this year, those numbers don’t compare with what we’ve done in the past,” Lopez said. “In ‘21, we had a bunch of home runs. Last year, I mean we broke every single record for home runs in the universe I feel like.

“But this team coming into this year wasn’t built that way. It wasn’t based on home runs. It was more on guys having good approaches (at the plate) and guys that know how to run the bases. ... We’ve been able to score a lot of runs doing so, so I hope it continues.”

Added outfielder Jimmy Herron, “We can still hit for power, but we don’t have sluggers one through nine. So being able to put the ball in play and we really place an emphasis on running the bases well ... in the second half, we’ve done that well and I think has helped us win some games.”

Lopez added that pitching — yes, pitching — has also been a big factor for the surge in stolen bases.

As the Isotopes’ pitching has improved — 7.70 earned-run average in the first half, 5.13 ERA second half — the team has been in a better position to run the bases aggressively.

“Our pitchers are doing a better job now,” Lopez said. “They’re allowing us to be somewhere close in games — being up in games allows us to be more aggressive.”