Despite the players who have passed through the team, from Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton to Desmond Jennings in the present, the running game has been an important part of the Rays offense. As a team that has had issues finding true middle of the order bats aside from the first three years of Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria, the Rays have generally needed to manufacture runs in order to score. With such prime examples as Crawford’s six stolen base game against the Red Sox, the Rays typically sought to put pressure on the opposition and try to cause the other team to make mistakes.

And now, the tables appear to have turned. This season, the Rays are tied for 18th in the league in stolen bases with 21, and are 23rd in success rate at 66%. Meanwhile, the opposition has run on the Rays third most in baseball, being successful 39 times while being caught in only seven attempts. That success rate in in the bottom third of the league. While the Rays may not have had much success in throwing out opposing base stealers last year or the year before, they still managed to hold the running game down. Since 2008, the Rays have been in the top half of the league in terms of having the fewest steals attempted by the opposition, ranking in the top ten three of those five years.

What has changed from the previous years to this year? Offensively, even without the same success rate on the basepaths, the Rays have still managed to score 222 runs as of Tuesday night, the seventh highest total in the league. They have had timely hitting, and great early performances from the likes of Kelly Johnson and James Loney. As of this point, that lack of success in the running game has not truly affected their offense, but it would still be nice to see it start to get going once again.

On the pitching side, James Shields and Wade Davis are both gone, but that may not have as much of an impact. Shields has not been great at holding down the opposition, but Davis has had a 37% success rate in throwing out base stealers while he has been on the mound. Opponents also have not attempted to steal much against Davis, with only 15 stolen base attempts in the past two plus years. Yet, given that Davis spent one of those years in the bullpen, that likely is not the difference.

Then we get to the other difference – that Jose Lobaton has been in what has essentially been a 50-50 split in playing time with Jose Molina. Heading into last night’s game, Molina had five more plate appearances and played 15 more innings than Lobaton on the season. While Molina has provided his typical level of offense (not much), he has been able to throw out 22% of opposing base stealers, which is just under league average. Lobaton, meanwhile, has been utterly abysmal in that regard, throwing out just one base runner in 19 attempts.

Although Lobaton is hitting better than Molina, is the difference enough to make up for Lobaton’s problems in throwing out opposing base stealers? It is a moot point as Molina is dealing with an injury, but this is something the Rays may need to assess once he becomes healthy again. Is it more important to possibly get another out for the pitcher, or to have a slightly better bat in the lineup?

For the time being, the Rays are finding out what it was like to face them over the past few years as teams are running fairly rampant upon their catchers. However, short of playing Molina two out of every three games, there may not be much that the Rays can do to fix this issue.

Yet, his offense is not what keeps him in the lineup. He is known around baseball as one of the better defensive catchers in the game, and has become known for his ability to frame pitches. In fact, it was that pitch framing ability that led the Rays to sign him to a two year contract when Molina was a free agent, giving him his second chance to be a starting catcher, and first since 2008.

Now, other teams have started to realize the value to a catcher who can frame pitches with the ability that Molina does. In an article by Ben Lindbergh, he feels that those who are truly skilled at getting their pitchers additional strikes may become more sought after than ever. Recently, other teams have caught on to the notion that a catcher who has a knack for turning pitches that would have otherwise been balls into strikes is a valuable commodity. This approach is not just limited to smaller market teams such as the Rays; part of the reason why the Yankees gave Francisco Cervelli the starting job at catcher was his ability to frame pitches.

In a time of pitch counts and a general fear of pitchers injuring themselves through overuse, the ability to steal a couple of strikes over the course of the game may go a long way. That pitch could become a strikeout, or lead to an out on a pitch that the batter may not have swung at if the count had been different. Each extra out can add up, and help to decrease the workload on the bullpen, making them fresher later in the season.

That is where a catcher such as Molina truly stands out. By stealing outs, he helps an already excellent Rays pitching staff be that much better. Over the course of the past five years, he has been worth just over two extra wins a year just from framing pitches, which can be a major difference in a division as competitive as the American League East.

While it would be nice to see some offensive production from Jose Molina, his ability to win games by getting calls helps to mitigate his subpar hitting. For the Rays, that ability to frame pitches may be enough.

1. Desmond Jennings, CF
2. Matt Joyce, LF
3. Ben Zobrist, RF
4. Evan Longoria, 3B
5. James Loney, 1B
6. Yunel Escobar, SS
7. Luke Scott, DH
8. Jose Molina, C
9. Ryan Roberts, 2B

Also returning to the lineup are Escobar and Molina. Escobar missed the Rays’ last four games with a hamstring issue, and it was unfortunate timing because he was beginning to break out of his early-season slump, going 8 for his last 29 (.286) with 1 double, 2 homer, and 5 RBI, striking out just once. If there is anything positive from this, it’s that Escobar gets a reset after hitting just .164 in his first 21 games, and hopefully leg two of his season can be better than the first part. Molina missed Sunday’s game after getting hit by a pitch just above his knee on Saturday. Molina could not have picked a better time to get nicked up considering Jose Lobaton was probably going to start the next day anyway before the off-day on Monday, and nice to see him back to the lineup. The Rays offense certainly didn’t miss him, but his defensive contributions are a big part of the Rays’ pitching success.

With Scott coming back, the Rays did have to make a roster casualty, and that was Shelley Duncan, who was designated for assignment. Duncan hit just .182 in 64 plate appearances, but his strikeout to walk ratio was a great 14-9 and it’s a pity that we didn’t get to see whether that patience would turn into some power. Duncan just ran out of time with Scott returning, and the Rays no longer had room for him on the roster. Duncan would have to pass through waivers and then accept an optional assignment to Triple-A to remain in the organization, so he may have played his last game in a Rays uniform.