On Tuesday night in San Francisco, the Red Sox displayed an innovative array of tactics that permitted them to steal a 10-inning, 5-3 win against a first-place Giants team. On a night when the Sox didn't clear the fences, they proved opportunistic, particularly with alert baserunning that proved game-changing and was reminiscent of the sort of smart play that characterized the 2013 team.

The Red Sox' best teams in recent years did not merely wield a bludgeon. Their championship-caliber clubs featured (along with more blunt instruments) a Swiss Army knife of tools that permitted them to carve, pick, and unlock wins.


A few snapshots:

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■ In the top of the seventh inning, with the Giants leading, 3-2, Jackie Bradley Jr. led off with a walk. He then picked a great pitch on which to steal, got an excellent jump, and not only stole second but scampered to third with one out.

■ Chris Young walked to put runners on the corners with one out for pinch hitter David Ortiz, who tapped a soft grounder over the mound against lefthander Javier Lopez. Young, the ball, and shortstop Brandon Crawford (playing on the right side of the infield in a shift) arrived at roughly the same spot at the same time.

In a remarkable display of body control, Young managed not just to throw on the brakes but to reverse his momentum while diving back toward first, ducking Crawford's tag attempt by a matter of inches.

When Crawford threw to first to clip Ortiz, Young hopped up and scampered safely into second ahead of a throw, thus avoiding an inning-ending double play and permitting Bradley to score the tying run.

Chris Young managed to avoid Brandon Crawford’s tag and made it to second base on a grounder by David Ortiz in the seventh inning. Ben Margot

■ In the 10th inning, with runners on first and second and no outs, Mookie Betts not only dropped a perfect bunt down the third-base line for a hit that loaded the bases, but also got a terrific read on a one-out Xander Bogaerts flare into shallow center, thus permitting him to cross the plate as the second run on the hit.

. . .

The Sox are doing some remarkable things offensively, mostly with a bat in hand. Yet they're not one-dimensional. With three steals Tuesday, the Sox now have 41 this season (fourth-most in the majors) and a major league-best 89 percent success rate on steal attempts.

In recent years, excellence stealing bases typically has been associated with elite teams:

2006 Mets (reached NLCS)

2007 Phillies (reached NLDS; of note: the Red Sox led the AL in stolen base percentage that year on the way to winning the World Series)

2008 Phillies (won World Series)

2009 Phillies (reached World Series)

2010 Phillies (reached NLCS)

2011 Phillies (won 102 games, lost in NLDS)

2012 Phillies (the only team in this group to miss the playoffs)

2013 Red Sox (won World Series)


2014 Royals (reached World Series)

2015 Blue Jays (reached ALCS)

It seems more than a coincidence to see such consistent team success associated with elite baserunning (as represented by at least the one measure of stolen base efficiency). Presumably, the correlation is a demonstration both of the intrinsic impact of baserunning — the ability to manufacture runs and, perhaps, the ability to mess with the tempo of an opposing pitching staff — as well as what it represents. Running well and efficiently may point to teams that possess an overall attention to detail that can permit them to win close games against good teams.

The Red Sox won a close game against an impressive Giants team on the road Tuesday night. They did it in a fashion that ran counter to the one they've employed for the vast majority of their wins this year. In that sense, it was one of the Sox' most impressive, and most promising, victories of 2016.

Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter@alexspeier.