Now, I know. Yes, a lot of fans struggle with advanced stats, perhaps because those stats weren’t a part of their baseball upbringing, or because the stats are just too confusing and convoluted. But the reality is this: I’m not solely a numbers guy, but even I can admit that there is clout to stats such as wins above replacement (WAR) or BsR.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a quandary — we’re going to keep the pedal down as far as being aggressive,” Matheny said before Wednesday’s game. “You get opportunities to make something happen, you’re not going to have slugging every single night we’d like to say we can hang around and somehow we’re going to score a bunch of runs, but it doesn’t work that way. You have to manufacture. You have to get something going. And when that happens, you have to do the little things right, you have to take the extra base, you have to look for an opportunity if the pitcher is giving you a free base. I think that’s all part of an aggressive nature. Once we back off of that, I believe we’re in a bad direction.”